The court upheld the principles of natural justice in conducting the enquiry, considered the adequacy of evidence to support the charges, and found the penalty of dismissal from service to be proportionate for the serious misconduct.

JUDGMENT :

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of parties taken up for final hearing.

2. Petitioner challenges Award – I dated 29.10.2020 and Award – II dated 06.10.2021 passed by the Labour Court, Aurangabad in Reference IDA No. 12 of 2016 and seeks the relief of reinstatement with full backwages and continuity of service. He further seeks relief of refund of forfeited amount towards pending bills. An alternate prayer is made for payment of compensation in place of reinstatement and full backwages considering advance age and disease of the petitioner.

3. Brief facts of the case are that, the petitioner joined respondent No. 1-bank on the post of peon with effect from 03rd October, 1984 initially as a daily wager and he was made permanent with effect from 01.01.1994. He was promoted as a cash peon with effect from 30.01.1995. He claims that he was diagnosed with Hepatitis-B during the course of testing in a private laboratory on 18th October, 2008.

4. On 04th February, 2014, petitioner was served with memorandum of charge sheet for initiation of disciplinary proceedings on following charges:

1. Mr. A. M. Kasliwal has claimed reimbursement of domiciliary treatment for Hepatitis-B since Dec.2008. Initially he claimed Rs. 13698/- per month. The amount of his bill was continuously increasing. In October 2012 his bill was reached to Rs. 29233/-. He further submitted his claim of Rs.43781/- as bill for May 2013. It shows that he tried to get more amounts by submitting bills of higher amount.

2. Since no certain period to cure his decease was mentioned in the medical certificate, he was referred to Medical Board (Govt. Medical College Hospital) Aurangabad. The Board has issued their report in which it is opined that only one tablet of Entacare 0.5 mg is sufficient for his decease as against his bill for three tablets per day that too up to June 2013. It clearly indicates that Mr. Kasliwal has claimed bill of treatment which was not at all required by him.

3. Mr. Kasliwal use to purchase Entacare 0.5 mg tablets from a medical shop named as M/s Nayan Medical & General Stores located at Shop No. 2, Shopping Centre N-11, Navjeevan Colony, Hudco, Aurangabad. It is the costly tablet as compared to other medicines. On inquiry it is learnt that the shop is closed in December 2010. As no shop is in existence the bills submitted by Mr. Kasliwal are fake and thereby he has defrauded the Bank by submitting fake bills and got reimbursement of bills to the extent of Rs. 612870/- up to November 2012.

4. He further submitted bills for the period from December 2012 to August 2013 amount of which is Rs. 324729.50. The bills are based on the bills of M/s Nayan Medical & General Stores. The sop is not in existence. As such he has further made attempt to defraud the Bank by Rs. 324729.50.

5. Petitioner denied charges by submitting reply dated 05.09.2014. During the course of enquiry, petitioner submitted application on 04.06.2014 for summoning the owner of M/s Nayan Medical and General Stores as witness, however, that witness had already expired on 16.02.2013, on account of which he could not be examined. The Enquiry Officer submitted report dated 13.10.2014 holding that the charges were proved. By order dated 13.10.2014, petitioner came to be dismissed from service. He approached the Appellate Authority on 21.10.2014, but was not reinstated.

6. Petitioner approached the Central Labour Commissioner, Pune and after failure of conciliation, the reference was made by the Central Government under the Industrial Disputes Act for adjudication of dispute in respect of dismissal of the petitioner.

7. The Labour Court passed Award – I dated 19.09.2018 holding that the enquiry held against the petitioner was fair and proper and that the findings of the Enquiry Officer are not perverse. Petitioner challenged Award – I dated 19.09.2018 before this Court by filing Writ Petition No. 433 of 2019, which came to be disposed of by judgment and order dated 07.02.2