Q: I am 52 years of age and have been working continuously for over 20 years in a nationalised bank. I am now contemplating leaving my job. My question is, should I resign or take voluntary retirement? Will I still be entitled to pension after I leave my job?

J. Basu

A: In service jurisprudence there is a significant distinction between resignation and voluntary retirement. Both involve voluntary acts on the part of the employee to leave service, but they operate differently and have different implications. An employee may resign at any point of his career, whereas he can only seek voluntary retirement after rendering a prescribed period of qualifying service. In fact most banking service rules provide that if an employee of above 50 years of age desires, he can voluntarily retire from service after giving three months’ notice in writing. In such cases he would be entitled to pension and other benefits envisaged in the voluntary retirement scheme if any. However, in the case of resignation, the employee would normally be denied all retirement benefits based on the premise that when an employee resigns, his past service is deemed to stand forfeited, thus disqualifying him from pension and other post retirement payments.

Q: I was commissioned to do some freelance work for an advertising agency. After my assignment was over, the company paid me my fees by issuing a cheque. When I presented the cheque to the bank, the cheque bounced. I immediately informed the company verbally about this and the officers of the company assured me that they would pay up but eventually they did not. Finally, I wrote them a letter demanding payment of my dues within 21 days. I sent this letter 16 days after I had been informed that the cheque had bounced. The company received the letter but, to date, has neither replied nor paid up.

Later, I heard that as per law, I was required to send such notice within a period of 15 days of knowledge of dishonour of the cheque. Does this mean that I cannot prosecute the company because I sent my letter late? What are my options?
J.Mukherjee

A: Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act 1881 provides an effective measure against persons issuing cheques that are not honoured on presentation. Before you can initiate such proceedings the law requires you to give a notice in writing to the drawer of the cheque. Originally, such notice had to be issued within fifteen days of your being informed of the return of the unpaid cheque, but the Act was amended in 2002 and now the prescribed time limit for issuing such notice is thirty days. Thus, your notice letter of demand is well within the prescribed period and, contrary to what you have ‘heard’, is perfectly valid.

If the drawer still fails to make the payment within fifteen days of receipt of such notice, he would be deemed to have committed an offence for which the company (and those persons responsible for the conduct of its business) could be punished with imprisonment for a term that may extend to two years or with a fine which may be up to twice the amount of the cheque or with both.

Besides this of course, you still have other legal options like filing a civil suit or initiating winding up proceedings against the company, within a period of three years from the date that the money was payable to you.