Resignation from a constitutional office cannot be withdrawn after acceptance if it was not intended to be prospective in effect

Resignation from a constitutional office cannot be withdrawn after acceptance if it was not intended to be prospective in effect. (SC's Constitution Bench in Union Of India vs Shri Gopal Chandra Misra And Ors, 15 February, 1978)

1. Resigning office necessarily involves relinquishment of the office which implies cessation or termination of, or cutting asunder from the office. A complete and effective act of resigning office is one which severs the link of the resignor with his office and terminates its tenure.

2. In the absence of a legal, contractual or constitutional bar, an intimation in writing sent to the appropriate authority by an incumbent, of his intention or proposal to resign his office/post from a future specified date, can be withdrawn by him at any time before it becomes effective i.e., before it effects termination of the tenure of the office/post or employment. This is general rule equally applies to Government servants and constitutional functionaries.

3. In the case of a Government servant/or functionary who cannot, under the conditions of his service/or office, by his own unilateral act of tendering resignation, give up his service/or office, normally, the tender of resignation becomes effective and his service/or office-tenure terminated, when it is accepted by the competent authority.

4. In the case of a Judge of a High Court, WHO IS A CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARY and under Proviso (a) to Article 217(1) of the Constitution has a unilateral right, or privilege to resign his office. His resignation becomes effective and tenure terminated on the date from which he, of his own volition, chooses to quit office. If in terms of the writing under his hand addressed to the President, he resigns in praesanti, the resignation terminates his office- tenure forthwith, and cannot therefore, be withdrawn or revoked thereafter. But, if he by such writing chooses to resign from a future date, the act of resigning office is not complete because it does not terminate his tenure before such date and the Judge can at any time before the arrival of that prospective date on which it was intended to be effective, withdraw it, because the Constitution does not bar such withdrawal.