IMPORTANT POINTS
Competent authority at transferred place would be competent to take disciplinary action against transferred employees.
Dismissal of an employee after honourable acquittal by a criminal court on same facts and evidence is not tenable.

JUDGMENT

V.GOPALA GOWDA, J.

Leave granted.

2. Aggrieved by the impugned judgment and order dated 07.02.2011 passed in W.P. No. 28464 of 2008, by the then High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad, the appellants have filed this appeal, framing certain questions of law, urging various legal grounds in support of the same and praying to set aside the impugned order and restore the order dated 27.11.2008 of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad (in short “the Tribunal”) passed in OA No. 2767 of 2007.

3. Brief facts of the case are stated hereunder for the purpose of examining the rival legal contentions urged on behalf of the parties and to find out whether the impugned judgment warrants interference by this Court in exercise of its appellate jurisdiction.

4. The appellants herein were appointed as Armed Reserve Constables by the Superintendent of Police Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. They were transferred on deputation basis to the Office of the Superintendent of Police, Railways, Guntakal, to discharge their duties in that establishment. While they were on deputation with the Railway Police, it is alleged that they were implicated in a murder case and the charge memo was issued to them on 11.09.2004. The Deputy Superintendent of Railway Police was appointed as an Enquiry Officer to enquire into the charges against them. On 13.06.2005, the Enquiry Officer after affording an opportunity to the appellants submitted his enquiry report. Subsequently, they were repatriated to their parent department. On 27.03.2007, the borrowing department-the first respondent herein passed the orders of dismissal of both the appellants from the services of the police department.

5. The appellants, aggrieved by the orders of dismissal passed against them by the first respondent filed original application before the Tribunal urging various legal grounds. The case of the appellants before the Tribunal was that the order of dismissal passed against them by the first respondent is a major penalty, as enumerated under Rule 9 (ix) of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1991 (in short ‘the Rules’) and that the first respondent being the borrowing authority has no competence to pass orders of dismissal against the appellants. Only the second respondent, who is the lending authority, has got the competence under Rule 30 of the Rules.

6. The Tribunal after considering the factual and rival legal contentions and appreciating the material evidence on record set aside the orders of dismissal passed against the appellants.

7. Aggrieved by the order, the Superintendent of Police, Railways, challenged the correctness of the judgment and order passed by the Tribunal before the then High Court of Andhra Pradesh by filing a Writ Petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India urging certain legal grounds.

8. The High Court allowed the writ petition after interpreting the first proviso to Rule 16 of the Rules stating that the first respondent is the competent authority to pass the order of dismissal against the appellants as they were working in the Railway Police wing at Aanthapur District at the time of occurrence of the said criminal acts. Hence, this appeal by the appellants.

9. Ms. S. Janani, the learned counsel on behalf of the appellants has contended that the appellants were appointed in the Office of the Superintendent of Police, Chittoor, which is entirely a separate unit of appointment and they were sent on deputation to the Office of the Superintendent of Police, Railways, which is a separate legal entity altogether. The transfer as referred to in the first proviso to Rule 16 of the Rules is not applicable to the fact situation for the reason that the words “transfer on deputation” does not mean to say that they were transferred to the Railway unit of the police department, which is the Central Government Department as the Railway Police wing is required to be manned by the Andhra Pradesh Police