The court held that the punishment of dismissal was disproportionate to the offense and set aside the dismissal order.

Debi Prosad Dey, J.

1. Challenge in this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is the order of dismissal of the present petitioner from the post of Central Reserve Police Force being No. P.VIII-3/2011-EC-2 dated August, 16 passed by Disciplinary Authority and to set aside the order in appeal No. R.XIII-2/2012-ES-EC-III, dated June, 15, 2012 passed by revisional authority on the ground that though the petitioner belongs to “Namasudra” Caste which is recognized as a Scheduled Caste under the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order 1950, in part XIX under the head of West Bengal list the said “Namasudra” Caste is appearing as Item No. 46, yet the petitioner has been terminated from service on the ground of production of a fake ‘Schedule Caste’ Certificate.

2. The petitioner got himself enrolled in the Central Reserve Police Force (For short C.R.P.F.) on May, 20, 1999 in the post of constable (Safai-Karmachari, Ministerial) after fulfilling all the requisite qualification and criteria.

3. The petitioner has been working as constable (CRPF) for about 12 years and suddenly the petitioner was served with the statements of Article of charges after 12 years of his enrolment as constable of CRPF on the ground that he had produced a fake certificate of Scheduled Caste at the time of his enrolment as constable of CRPF and he also had submitted a false declaration to that effect.

4. After completion of inquiry the petitioner was found guilty and the Disciplinary Authority terminated him from service. The appellate authority and the revisional authority have also upheld such decision of disciplinary authority. The contesting respondents has filed affidavit in opposition stating inter-alia that in terms of the direction given by the Hon’ble High Court at Delhi in C.W.P. No. 5976 of 2003 the department started verifying the Scheduled Caste Certificates in respect of the persons recruited from the Schedule Caste quota and on enquiry it was found that the scheduled Caste Certificate No. 11517 dated 16th November, 1998 produced by the petitioner was not issued from the office of Sub-Divisional Officer, Bongaon and the petitioner submitted the same and gave a declaration at the time of enrolment that the certificate was genuine. Accordingly the petitioner was found guilty in the disciplinary proceeding and he was terminated from the service.

5. Learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the disciplinary authority ought to have verified authenticity of such certificate immediate after recruitment of the petitioner and that having not been done, the disciplinary authority ought to be estopped from verifying the said certificate after 12 years from the date of enrolment of the present petitioner. It is further submitted that the Division Bench of our High Court has condoned the non-production of such Scheduled Caste Certificate of a Judicial Officer at the time of filling up the form for recruitment and subsequently that officer was permitted to file the Scheduled Caste Certificate on the ground that in fact such officer actually belongs to Scheduled Tribe Community. Learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner vehemently contended that in fact there is no doubt that the present petitioner belongs to “Namasudra” Caste and thereby the present petitioner is a member of Scheduled Caste Community. This fact has also been accepted by the revisional authority as well as by the appellate authority but no opportunity was given to the petitioner to produce the original Scheduled Caste Certificate which has been annexed with the writ application being annexure P-1 and the original caste certificate subsequently issued by the SDO, Bongaon on 21st July, 2011 vide annexure P-7.

6. Learned Advocate for the petitioner has relied on a decision reported in (2011) 4 WBLR (Cal) 415 (Registrar General, High Court vs. Srinibas Prasad Shah) wherein the Division Bench of this Court has permitted the officer t