JUDGMENT :

Ravi Malimath, J. - Petitioners in this writ petition have challenged the Order dated 08.04.2014 passed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal ('Tribunal' in short) in Application No. 11879/2002, by which the Tribunal was pleased to allow in part the application filed by the respondent and substituted the penalty of dismissal from service imposed by the second petitioner herein vide Order dated 19.07.2002 to the penalty of compulsory retirement, prospectively from 1st April, 2014.

2. We have heard the learned counsels on both sides.

3. It is the case of the petitioners that the respondent/applicant joined service under the Health Department as basic health worker on 01.02.1980 and since he unauthorisedly remained absent from duty for more than a decade, disciplinary proceedings were initiated and on the basis of the report dated 14.09.2001 of the Enquiry Officer, the Director of Health & Family Welfare Service passed an Order dated 19.07.2002 imposing penalty of dismissal from service. The appeal filed by the respondent was also dismissed by the Government vide Order dated 21.06.2003. However, the Tribunal partly allowed the application filed by the respondent and substit