Bank of India v. O.P. Swarnakar

Facts

• The bank offered a voluntary retirement scheme, inviting employees to apply
• Several employees applied, effectively making an offer to retire on the scheme's terms
• Some employees sought to withdraw their applications before the bank had finally accepted them
• The question was whether such withdrawal was permissible given the scheme's specific terms and the stage the process had reached

Issue

1. Whether an employee's application under a voluntary retirement scheme, functioning as an offer, could be withdrawn before the employer's final acceptance, and what stage constitutes final acceptance in this context.

Held

• The Court examined the specific scheme terms and the stage of the acceptance process to determine whether withdrawal remained permissible
• Ordinary contract principles regarding offer and revocation before acceptance were applied to this employment context
• The finality of acceptance depended on the specific point in the scheme's process, assessed against its own terms

Ratio Decidendi

General contract principles governing revocation of an offer before acceptance apply to structured schemes such as voluntary retirement offers, with the specific scheme's own terms determining precisely when the employer's acceptance becomes final and forecloses withdrawal.