Judgment

Arijit Pasayat, J.—Leave granted.

2. Appellants calls in question legality of the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court which set aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge and directed that departmental proceedings were not to be continued until conclusion of criminal charge.

3. Background facts in a nutshell are as under :

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the ‘employer’) is a Government of India enterprise.

4. Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (in short the ‘CBI’) raided the house of the respondent (hereinafter referred to as the ‘employee’) on 13.3.1998 and found that he was in possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and consequently a case was registered on 5.5.1998. After completion of investigation charge sheet was filed. In the meantime departmental proceedings were initiated against the respondent and charge sheet was issued. The employee filed a writ petition before the Andhra Pradesh High Court taking the stand that departmental proceedings should be stayed till completion of the criminal case. It was specifically stated that once sanction has been granted