The disciplinary authority must independently apply its mind and not act on the dictate of the Chief Vigilance Officer.

This appeal is filed by the unsuccessful petitioner in W.P.No.14735/2000 being aggrieved by the order dated 4/08/2003 wherein the learned Single Judge of this Court has declined to interfere with the order of dismissal dated 3-7-1999 passed by the second respondent and dismissed the writ petition.

2. The material facts of the case leading up to this appeal with reference to the rank of the parties before the learned Single Judge are as follows:

The appellant herein was working as Branch Manager at Chittur branch of the first respondent-Bank. A charge memo was issued against him on 6-11-1997 for having committed certain irregularities while granting loans in the names of fictitious persons and also committed financial irregularities and action may be taken against him. The writ petitioner replied to the said charge memo on 18-12-1997. Since the reply was not found satisfactory, disciplinary enquiry was held. In the disciplinary enquiry, writ petitioner was afforded sufficient opportunity to substantiate his case. It is the contention of the petitioner that he had not committed any misconduct and he had granted loans in accordance with law as per the directions in order to reach the quota that had been given to him and he had developed the branch and has not committed any misconduct.

4. The enquiry officer considered 74 instances of misconduct and held that 43 of them were proved, 13 were proved in part and 18 were not proved. The disciplinary authority accepted the report of the enquiry office and ordered dismissal of the petitioner from service. Being aggrieved by the same, the appeal was filed before the appellate authority and the said appeal was also dismissed. Therefore, writ petition is filed contending that the petitioner has not been afforded sufficient opportunity to inspect the documents and to go through the records before submitting his reply to the charge. He was also not afforded sufficient opportunity in the enquiry, all the instances of irregularities are baseless and charge had not been proved. It was also contended that out of 239 accounts. 223 accounts had been closed and the Bank had recovered the entire loan amount and it was also contended that punishment imposed is disproportionate to the alleged misconduct held to have been proved by the enquiry officer.

5. The petition was resisted by the respondents by filing detail statement of objections denying the averments made in the writ petition and enumerated that the petitioner was afforded sufficient opportunity to inspect the documents. He was also granted sufficient opportunity to substantiate his case before the enquiry officer and there was no allegation of error or irregularity in conducting the enquiry and enquiry officer has held that out of 74 instances of misconduct. 43 had been proved. 13 had been partly proved and 18 had not been proved which had been accepted by the disciplinary authority and the punishment imposed is also commensurate with the charge of misconduct as the petitioner was working as Manager of the bank and he was holding the position of trust and he is guilty of financial misconduct and such persons cannot be continued in the services of the Bank. Therefore, the writ petition is liable to be dismissed as devoid of merits.

6. The learned Single Judge after considering the contention of learned counsel for the parties, by order dated 4-8-2002 considered all the contentions raised by the petitioner before him and held that the petitioner had been granted sufficient opportunity to inspect the documents and there is no violation of principles of natural justice. There was no merit in the contention that since no action has been taken in respect of the subordinate offices, no action should be taken against the petitioner as the same is discriminatory. The learned Single Judge also held that the punishment imposed cannot be said to be disproportionate having regard to the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in B.C. Chatur