ORDER :

1. Aggrieved by an order of reinstatement with 50% back-wages, but all other consequential benefits in full, passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, the Management of the Allahabad Bank has come up with one Special Leave Petition and the delinquent Officer has come up with the other Special Leave Petition.

2. We have heard the learned Counsel for the parties.

3. Since one of these Special Leave Petitions is by the Management of the Bank and other SLP is by the delinquent Officer, we shall refer to the parties as "the Bank" and "the Officer-employee".

4. The Officer-employee was first appointed as a Clerk way back in the year 1974. He was promoted to the post of Junior Manager Grade-II in 1982 and to the post of Manager in 1987. In July, 1988 he was issued with a charge memorandum, comprising of 3 articles of charges. A departmental enquiry followed and the Enquiry Officer held the charges proved. After finding that the Report of the Enquiry Officer was not very happily drafted, the disciplinary authority analysed the evidence on record independently and passed an order of penalty of dismissal from service on 31.03.1989.

5. The Officer-employee filed a departmental appeal under Regulation 17 of the Allahabad Bank Officer Employees (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1976, contending among others, that the findings of the Enquiry Officer were not even enclosed to the final order of penalty.

6. The appellate authority, by an order dated 28.02.1990 dismissed the appeal, despite recording a finding that the copy of the enquiry report was not enclosed to the final order of penalty. However, the Appellate Authority attempted to overcome this defect by holding that after the Officer-employee filed the statutory appeal, a copy of the enquiry report was sent to his address on 02.06.1989 and that the same returned undelivered.

7. After filing a petition for Review and getting it dismissed, the Officer-employee moved the High Court with a writ petition in W.P.No. 29426 of 1990. After referring to Regulation 9 of the Allahabad Bank Officer Employees (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1976 which provides for a supply of the copy of the enquiry report, the High Court allowed the writ petition by an order dated 27.04.2011, directing the Management to supply a copy of the enquiry report within one month and giving liberty to the Officer-employee to file a fresh Appeal with a further direction to the appellate authority to decide the appeal expeditiously.

8. The Bank filed a Special Leave Petition (C) CC No. 13418 of 2011 and the same was dismissed by this Court by an Order dated 26.08.2011. The Bank then sought a review before the High Court but the same also got rejected.

9. In an interesting twist, the Bank sent a letter dated 8.05.2012 to the Officer-employee, claiming that the copy of the enquiry report was not traceable and that he will be free to submit a statutory appeal, raising all issues. Aggrieved by the stand so taken, the Officer-employee filed a fresh Writ Petition in W.P No. 1403 of 2013. The said Writ Petition was allowed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, setting aside the order of penalty and directing reinstatement with 50% of the back wages, but with all consequential benefits including post retirement benefits to which he would have been entitled had he not been dismissed from service. This was for the reason that the employee attained superannuation on 28.02.2013. The operative portion of the Order dated 01.10.2018 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is reproduced as follows:

"... Resultantly, the writ petition is allowed.

The order dated 31.03.1989 whereby the punishment of dismissal has been imposed upon the petitioner is hereby quashed. We also quash the order dated 15.09.2016 rejecting the statutory appeal preferred by the petitioner against the order of dismissal.

The petitioner will thus be entitled to be given all consequential benefits, including the post retirement benefit