Judgment

Arijit Pasayat, J.—Leave granted in S.L.P. (C) 21363 of 2005 CC No. 6855 of 1999.

2. Both these appeals have matrix in a judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court in a Letters Patent Appeal filed by Ashok Kumar, the respondent in Civil Appeal No. 4792 of 1999 and the appellant in the connected appeal. For the sake of convenience said Ashok Kumar is described hereinafter as the ‘delinquent officer’. By the impugned judgment the High Court held that the removal of the delinquent officer from service was in violation of the provisions contained in Section 10 of the Border Security Force Act, 1968 (in short ‘the Act’) read with Rule 20 of the Border Security Force Rules, 1969 (in short ‘the Rules’). The appeal filed by the delinquent officer was allowed upsetting the judgment of the learned Single Judge who had dismissed the writ petition filed by the delinquent officer.

3. Factual position, filtering out unnecessary details, is as follows:

There was a raid in the house of militants on 23rd and 24th March, 1992. The delinquent officer being Deputy Inspector General in Command was having Supervisory power over the Commandant who raided the hideout of m