The Supreme Court of India has ruled that an employee who abandons service just before retirement cannot later claim pension by calling it voluntary retirement.

A bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice NV Anjaria dismissed the appeal filed by a former clerk of the State Bank of India, who had remained absent from duty for nearly 11 months without permission.

The Court made it clear that this was not a case of voluntary retirement but of “voluntary abandonment of service,” as the employee stayed absent without informing the bank or taking leave.

The employee had argued that he had completed over 20 years of service and was therefore eligible for pension. However, the Court clarified that under the SBI Pension Fund Rules, service is counted from the date of confirmation, not from the initial appointment during probation.

In this case, although the employee joined in August 1978, he was confirmed in February 1979. When the Court calculated his service from the date of confirmation until December 1998—when his services were treated as abandoned—it found that he had completed less than 20 years of service.

The Court stressed that to claim pension, an employee must complete at least 20 years of pensionable service and formally opt for voluntary retirement. Since neither condition was met, the employee was not entitled to pension benefits.

It also noted that abandonment of service cannot be treated as voluntary retirement to claim benefits.

Finding no error in the decisions of the Labour Court and High Court, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.