1. Heard Mr. S.K. Medhi, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. A. Das for the writ petitioner and Mr. S. Dutta, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. C. Sarma appearing for the respondent Bank.

2. The case of the petitioner in brief is that he joined the United Bank of India (the Bank) as Cash-cum-General Clerk on 05.05.1997 at the Jowai Branch of the Bank. Thereafter, he was promoted to the rank of Scale-I Officer in the month of June, 1990 and further promoted to Scale-II Officer the month of February, 2002. Between the period, May 2005 to March 2006, he was posted in the Itanagar Branch of the Bank and it is for the misconduct alleged against him during this posting that a departmental proceeding was drawn against him.

3. The petitioner was placed under suspension vide order dated 15.09.2007 (Annexure-I) with immediate effect for misconduct alleged to have been committed by him under Regulation 12 (1) (a) of the United Bank of India Officer Employees (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1976 (the Regulations). Following his suspension, an explanation was called from him vide communication dated 21.09.2007 (Annexure-II) which was to the effect that while he was posted as Manager in the Itanagar Branch of the Bank from 24.05.2005 to 18.03.2006, he had committed irregularities in the Branch by issuing a delivery order dated 16.02.2006 to one M/s Berial Engineering Private Limited, Guwahati for supply of vehicle i.e., Tata JD-315 Backhoe Loader costing Rs. 18,72,000/- (Rupees Eighteen Lakhs Seventy Two Thousand) only to one Mr. Tadar Tanaiya. Although the said delivery order was said to have been issued against a loan sanctioned to Shri Tanaiya, the records of the Branch revealed that no such loan was sanctioned/ disbursed to him and as such, the delivery order was issued by the petitioner without any valid Term Loan being sanctioned. The vehicle was delivered to the beneficiary on 17.02.2006 on the basis of the delivery order issued by the petitioner and following which, release of payment towards the price of the vehicle supplied was being claimed by the firm. The Bank being exposed to a financial loss for the aforesaid amount besides interest, the petitioner was thus asked to submit his explanation within 10 (ten) days from the date of receipt of the letter.

4. Although the petitioner tendered his explanation, the same having not been accepted, a charge-sheet was issued to him on 12.05.2008 leveling 3 (three) charges against him as below:-

"During the tenure of your service as Manager at Banks Itanagar Branch from 24.05.2005 to 18.03.2006, you had committed the under-mentioned irregularities thereby failed to take all possible steps to ensure and protect the interest of the Bank and discharge your duties with utmost integrity, devotion and diligence in contravention of regulations 3 (1) 3 (3) of United Bank of India Officer Employees (Conduct) Regulations 1976 thereby committing misconducts in terms of Regulation 24 of the said Regulations.

1. You had issued Bank Guarantee No. ITA/BG/33/05 dated 10.01.2006 for Rs. 1918788.00 on behalf of M/s J.C. Constructions Pvt. Ltd. in favour of Arunachal Rural Road Development Agency (ARRDA), Itanagar without observing the formalities, as prescribed under the extant guidelines of the Bank.

2. You had issued delivery order No. ITA/ADV/RTO/TT/02/06 dated 16.02.2006 to M/s Berial Engineers commitment on behalf of the Bank to make payment of the price of the machinery to the supplier after delivery of the same to Mr. Tadar Taniya without any valid consideration.

3. You had given a false statement dated 06.03.2007 to the Bank denying issuance of delivery order dated 16.02.2006, even though the same was issued by you only."

5. The petitioner was also given a list of documents relating to the article of charges on 12.05.2008 wherein, as many as 8 (eight) documents were mentioned. Although, the petitioner was given 7 (seven) days time to submit his reply to the charge-shee