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1996 Supreme(SC) 474

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
G T Nanavati, S C Agarwal
U. P. STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION, APPELLANTS
VERSUS
BASUDEO CHAUDHARY AND ANOTHER, RESPONDENTS.
Civil Appeal No. 5756 of 1994, decided on February 27, 1996.

Headnote:

Charges of misconduct - Terminating services - Respondent was employed as Conductor with U.P. State Road Transport Corporation - Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him on charges of misconduct and after conducting an inquiry wherein charges were found proved, petitioner was removed from service by order - Said removal from service of petitioner gave rise to an industrial dispute which was referred for adjudication to Labour Court - Before Labour Court, it was contended on behalf of petitioner that domestic inquiry was not fair and proper - Said plea of petitioner was accepted by Labour Court and Corporation was permitted to adduce evidence to prove charges - Corporation adduced evidence, documentary as well as oral, in support of charges before Labour Court and petitioner apart from examining himself produced two witnesses in support of his case – Held, After considering evidence adduced by Corporation and evidence produced by petitioner, Labour Court has found that charge is established - Court find no infirmity in said findings recorded by Labour Court – Court are unable to agree with view of High Court that case against petitioner has not been proved to the hilt - High Court was in error in interfering with award of Labour Court and in substituting penalty of censure for removal from service on view that there was only an attempt to cause loss to Corporation and action of Corporation terminating services of petitioner was not justified - Having regard to misconduct that has been found established against petitioner, it is not possible to say that Corporation, in removing petitioner from service, has imposed a punishment which is disproportionate to the misconduct - Court are, therefore, unable to uphold judgment of High Court - Appeal is accordingly allowed, judgment of High Court is set aside.

ORDER

1. This appeal is directed against the judgment of the Allahabad Hi Court dated 15-10-1993 in Writ Petition No. 19349 of 1992 whereby the High Court has allowed the said writ petition filed by Respondent I. The facts, briefly stated, are as follows :

2. Basudeo Chaudhary, Respondent I herein, (hereinafter referred to as the petitioner") was employed as Conductor with the U.P. State Road Transport Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "the Corporation"). Disciplinary proceedings were initiated againsr him on charges of misconduct and after conducting an inquiry wherein the charges were found proved, the petitioner was removed from service by order dated 17-4-1985. The said removal from service of the petitioner gave rise to an industrial dispute which was referred for adjudicanon to the Labour Court, Gorakhpur. Before the Labour Court, it was contended on behalf of the petitioner that the domestic inquiry was not fair and proper. The said plea of the petitioner was accepLed by the Labour Court and the Corpuration was permitted to adduce evidence to prove the charges. The Corporation adduced evidence, documentary as well as oral, in support of the charges before the Labour Court and the petitioner apart from examining himself produced two witnesses in support of his case. After considering the evidence on record, the Labour Court held that the charges levelled against the petitioner were established and the termination of his services was not invalid and illegal a and he was not entitled to any relief. The petitioner challenged the award of the Labour Court by filing the writ petition giving rise to this appeal. The High Court has allowed the said writ petition on the view that the misconduct was that the petitioner had attempted to cause a loss of Rs 65 to the Corporation and that the said misconduct was not of such a nature as to justify the action taken by the Corporation in terminating the services of the petitioner. The High Court has quashed the award of the Labour Court and has set aside the order removing the petitioner from service. The Corporation has been directed to reinstate the petitioner with effect from 1-10-1993 and to pay him the regular wages but he would not be entitled to back wages. It has been directed that the petitioner shall be censured for the incident. 3. The substance of the charges that have been levelled against the petinoner was that on 17-6-1982, he was posted on bus No. URO 2352 going from Faizabad to Chappra and that 23 passengers bound for Gorakhpur had boarded the bus at Basti. On inspection of the bus at Meerganj (between Basti and Khalilabad) it was found that the petitioner had recovered from the 23 passengers, who had boarded the bus at Basti, Rs 5.35 per head, the prescribed fare for travelling from Basti to Gorakhpur but in the. waybill he had entered as having received the sum of Rs 2.35 from each of them. Subsequently the said figure would have been altered from Rs 2.35 to Rs 2.85, which was the fare from Khalilabad to Gorakhpur and the petitioner would have retained the balance amount of Rs 2.50 per passenger. On earlier occasions also the petitioner had adopted the same modus operandi and in the previous waybills prepared by the petitioner there was overwriting and the figure 3 had been changed to 8 and the fare amount of Rs 2.35 had been altered to Rs 2.85. In order to prove the charge the Corporation examined Shri S. M. Arvi who was posted as Superintendent Transport and was head of the checking squad at Lucknow at the relevant time. In addition, the Corporation had produced the waybills and the counterfoils of the tickets and other documents. After considering the evidence adduced by the Corporation and the evidence produced by the petitioner, the Labour Court has found that the charge is established. We find no infirmity in the said findings recorded by the Labour Court. We are unable to agree with the view of the High Court that the case against the petitioner has not b



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