'Wife cannot withdraw husband’s resignation'

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Even the spouse or children of a person cannot withdraw a person’s resignation letter on his behalf, the High Court of Karnataka has said.

“If the employee himself is not willing to be in employment, how his spouse or children can cause his continuation in service, is un-understandable to say the least. An unwilling horse cannot be drawn to the river and made to drink the water, even in the absence of thirst,” the Division Bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit said in their judgement on October 30.

The Bench was hearing an appeal filed by one D Venkatesh, from Maddur, Mandya. He was employed in the Prathimika Krishi Pattina Sahakara Sangha Niyamitha.

He had filed a resignation letter which came to be accepted by a resolution of the said Society on November 11, 2021. But after a letter seeking to withdraw the resignation letter filed by Venkatesh’s wife, the resolution was withdrawn.

This was challenged by another employee in the High Court. The single-judge bench on October 13, 2022, quashed the order of withdrawing the resolution, thereby confirming Venkatesh’s resignation. Venkatesh then approached the Division Bench of the High Court.

The HC said that the employee has to withdraw his resignation before it is accepted.

“We decline indulgence in the matter, broadly agreeing with the reasoning of the learned Single Judge. Resignation is a voluntary act on the part of an employee by which he seeks to leave the service to which he is appointed. An employee who has tendered resignation voluntarily is entitled to withdraw the same before it is accepted unless the Service Rules otherwise provide,” it said.

The HC further said that the withdrawal of the resignation letter should be by the employee himself.

“The request for such withdrawal should flow from the hands of the concerned employee himself. That is not the case here. Admittedly, it is the spouse of the employee who had sought the withdrawal of resignation of the employee and that too after it was duly accepted. No Rule or Ruling is brought to our notice which recognizes such a right in the spouse of an employee. Such an idea is alien to Service Law,” it said.

Dismissing the appeal as being unworthy of merits, the HC said, “Permitting any person other than the employee to seek withdrawal of the employee’s resignation, that too without his consent, will have several undesirable consequences.” (WA 1312/2022)