JUDGMENT - DEVADHAR J.P., J.:—The question raised in this petition is whether the Disciplinary Authority is justified in compulsorily retiring a Metropolitan Magistrate from service under Rule 5(1)(vii) of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline Appeal) Rules, 1979 on the ground that the said Magistrate was found travelling without ticket in a local train thrice and on each occasion the behaviour of the said Magistrate with the Railway Staff in asserting that the Magistrates need not have a ticket was improper and constituted grave misconduct. According to the petitioner, the first instance of alleged ticketless travelling is a concocted one and the other two instances of ticketless travelling were due to unavoidable circumstances for which penal charges have been promptly paid by the petitioner and, therefore, the levy of major penalty is wholly unwarranted and the same is totally disproportionate to the offence committed. According, to the respondents, apart from ticketless travelling, the conduct of the petitioner on each of the three occasions in creating a scene at the railway station by asserting that the Metropolitan Magistrates have a right to travel without ticket and the conduct of the petitioner in addressing a letter dated 8-12-1997 to the General Manager, Central Railway, Mumbai asking him to issue necessary instructions to the above effect to the lower authorities so as to pressurise the ticket collectors not to perform their duties in accordance with law, constitutes grave misconduct warranting imposition of major penalty of compulsory retirement from service.

2. Facts in brief as set out in the above petition are that on 28-5-1992 the petitioner was appointed as a Metropolitan Magistrate at Bombay. The petitioner took charge as Metropolitan Magistrate at 16th Court, Ballard Pier Bombay on 19th August, 1992. During the period from 1992 to 1997 the petitioner acted as Magistrate at different Metropolitan Magistrate Courts in Bombay. During this period, her performance was appreciated by members of the Bar as well as litigants. The quarterly assessment of the petitioners performance was found to be satisfactory. In several quarters, the petitioners performance was stated to be noteworthy. When posted at Mazgaon from September, 1994 to August, 1995 the petitioner obtained an identity card from the Central Railway and purchased monthly or quarterly season ticket or railway pass for commuting from her residence at Mulund upto Byculla by train for attending the Court. From August, 1995 to October, 1997, the petitioner was posted at Andheri Metropolitan Magistrates Court. At that time, a Maruti van was allotted for joint use by four Metropolitan Magistrates residing at Thane as well as for the petitioner residing at Mulund. In November, 1997, the petitioner stopped using the pool car which was allotted to her to be used jointly with the other Metropolitan Magistrates. The petitioner obtained an identity card from the Central Railway on 3rd November, 1997 for purchasing a season ticket for travelling from Mulund to Dadar, where she was posted as Metropolitan Magistrate. The petitioner had purchased First Class season ticket for one month valid from 5th November, 1997 to 4th December, 1997.

3. On 5th December, 1997 while entering the Mulund Railway Station, the petitioner handed over Rs. 500/- and the railway identity card to her orderly for purchasing a new first class season ticket from Mulund to Dadar. The petitioner had also handed over her purse to the orderly as was her habit, to avoid loss thereof while boarding or alighting from the train. The orderly went to purchase the season ticket at Mulund Station and the petitioner proceeded to the railway platform. The petitioner boarded the train at Mulund in the belief that her orderly had purchased the new season ticket. In the train the petitioner was new accosted by two ticket collectors who asked the petitioner to produce ticket or pass. The petitioner narrated

Click Here to Read the rest of this document