Failure to furnish relevant documents to the delinquent officer prejudiced his defense, violating principles of natural justice and vitiating the decision-making process.

( 1 ) AN order made by the disciplinary authority dated January 11, 1990 and confirmed by the Appellate Authority dated march 20, 1990 and the orders made in a ceview petition by the reviewing authority dated May 30, 1991 are the subject-matters of his writ petition, by a dismissed employee, dismissed from the services of the respondent-Syndicate Bank ('the Bank' for short ).

( 2 ) DURING the pendency of this writ petition before this Court, the dismissed employee has expired. With the permission of the Court the legal representatives of the dismissed employee, namely his wife and his minor child have come on record and they are brosecuting the petition filed by the deceased petitioner.

( 3 ) THE deceased petitioner was an officer of the respondent-Bank. He was governed by the provisions of Syndicate Bank Officer employees' (Conduct) Regulations, 1976 and the Syndicate Bank Officer Employees' discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1976.

( 4 ) WHILE he was working as a Branch manager during the period August 25, 1984 to february 1, 1985 at Bartan Bazar, Moradabad branch, Uttar Pradesh State, he was served with a charge memo dated August 25, 1986. the charge memo contained the statement of imputations, the list of documents and the list of witnesses on which the respondent-Bank would be relying on in support of the ullegations contained in the charge memo. In the charge memo, petitioner was accused of violating Regulation 3 (1) of the Syndicate Bank officer Employees' (Conduct) Regulations, 1976 read with Regulation 24 of the regulations. The charge memo that was served on the petitioner requires to be noticed and the same is extracted and it reads as under.-"that during the period between August 25, 1984 and February 1, 1985 you were functioning as Manager of our Bartan bazar, Moradabad Branch and that while functioning in your position as such during the said period, you granted/caused to be granted credit facilities in the account of rajendra Flour and Allied Industries Private limited by way of unsecured overdrawals in their OD accounts, discounting the bills and cheques. That the transactions in question were authorised- (i) in excess of authority vested in you by the Bank; (ii) weakening the security position of the Bank in detriment to the interest of the Bank; (iii) by committing/causing to be committed various other irregularities more fully described in the statement of imputations of misconduct on your part here below: you thereby abused your official position to cause derivation of undue pecuniary advantage by the parties concerned in detriment to the interest of the Bank. By your above acts, you failed to discharge your duties with utmost integrity, honesty, devotion to duty and diligence and exhibited conduct unbecoming of the status of Bank officer and thus contravened Regulation 3 (1) of the Syndicate Bank Officer employees' (Conduct) Regulations, 1976".

( 5 ) AFTER receipt of the charge memo, petitioner had filed his reply denying the allegations contained in the charge memo and also had offered his explanation which promoted him to facilitate the VVIP customer of the Bank to make use of overdrawal facilities than the permissible limits. The disciplinary authority of the respondent-Bank not being satisfied with the explanation offered by the petitioner, had appointed one Sri B. R. Pai, as the enquiry officer to enquire into the allegations contained in the charge memo. The notice of enquiry was served on the petitioner. The first sitting of the enquiry proceedings was held on March 4, 1987 at the divisional office of Gaziabad. After completion of preliminaries in the enquiry proceedings, petitioner had requested the enquiry officer to direct the presenting officer or the disciplinary authority to furnish him certain documents. While making that request, he had also informed the enquiry officer the relevancy of those documents. He had stated that, those documents are required by him to defend himself