Technical resignation is a bridge, not a guillotine, says Karnataka High Court

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The High Court of Karnataka has castigated the State government for failing to pay pension to a retired university professor, even two years after his superannuation, merely because it was dithering over the erroneous question of whether he is entitled to pension under the old or the new scheme.

Affirming that the retired law professor is entitled to pension under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), the Court directed the government to pay pension within eight weeks with arrears with an interest of 6% per annum from the due date. Meanwhile, the court warned that failure to comply within the extended timeline will result in a punitive interest of 12% per annum and litigation costs of ₹1 lakh to the government.

A Division Bench comprising Justice M. Nagaprasanna and Justice Hema Kulkarni passed the order whole dismissing an appeal filed by the government challenging the singe judge’s March 2026 judgement declaring that the retired professor, Chidananda Reddy S. Patil, is entitled for pension under OPS.

Mr. Patil was initially appointed as a lecturer at Karnataka University (KU), Dharwad, on March 14, 1996 and gradually promoted to the level of associate professor and was the principal of Sir Siddappa Kambali Law College, a constituent college of KU. In 2013, he applied, through the proper channel as per the government’s rules, for the post of professor at Karnataka State Law University (KSLU), Hubballi.

After his selection, he tendered a “technical resignation” under Rule 252(b) of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR), which facilitates the transfer of service benefits when he joins another State-run organisation. However, upon his superannuation on December 31, 2024, the government denied him OPS benefits, citing a clause in his 2013 appointment order, which stipulated that his service in KSLU would be governed by the New Fixed Contributory Pension Scheme (NPS) even though KSLU in 2021 had already clarified that he is entitled for OPS as per the law.

Rejecting government’s argument that the “technical resignation” did not automatically preserve pensionary rights from his previous employment, the Bench said that KU had accepted his resignation under Rule 252(b), and he was relieved with a last pay certificate to protect his pay in the new institution, the KSLU.

The Bench described government’s interpretation as an “administrative misreading of the law” that sought to “efface nearly 17 years of Mr. Patil’s earlier service with KU” while asserting that “a technical resignation is a bridge between two appointments; it is not, by its very nature, a guillotine intended to sever every benefit flowing from the service rendered before it.”

“What the statute preserves, a contractual stipulation cannot extinguish,” the Bench stated adding that “statutory rights are not commodities to be bartered away at the threshold of employment.”

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