Important Point—An order involving civil consequences must be made consistently with rules of natural justice.

Pushpendra Singh Bhati, J.

1. Petitioner has preferred this writ petition making the following prayers:--

"(i) call for the record and examine;

(ii) quash and set aside the impugned Award dated 9.3.99 Exhibit-13 and direct the respondent No. 1 to give finding on the charge levelled against the petitioner;

(iii) Any other appropriate writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court may deem just and proper in the facts and circumstances may kindly be passed in favour of the petitioner;

(iv) writ petition be allowed with costs."

The facts of the case are that the petitioner was appointed as Conductor on 16/01/1983 in Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (for short, 'RSRTC'). The petitioner was charged on 25/03/1983 with the allegation that five passengers were travelling without ticket in the bus when he was discharging the duties as a conductor.

The petitioner filed a reply to the respondents' letter and informed them that the five passengers travelling without ticket were in-fact relatives of the driver of the bus Shri Niyas Mohammad and it was at his insistence that the petitioner had not issued tickets to the passengers concerned. Upon inspection of the bus on 25/03/1983, a report was prepared by the respondent authority recording the fact that the driver Shri Niyas Mohammad was in-fact not driving the bus on the fateful day and five passengers in the bus were found to be without ticket.

2. Learned Labour Court, while dealing with the order of termination, passed an award dt. 09/03/1999 in favour of respondent-corporation holding the termination to be lawful and proper.

3. The Dy Manager of RSRTC, Jhalawar had submitted his report dt. 05/07/1983 in which he had submitted that the bus was not being driven by Shri Niyas Mohammad and some other person was driving the bus. Similarly, the Assistant Traffic Inspector of the Flying Squad Shri Radhey Shyam Sharma also deposed that on 05/07/1983 the vehicle had five passengers without ticket and driver Shri Niyas Mohammad was not driving the vehicle. Shri Radhey Shyam Sharma clearly stated in his affidavit that the vehicle was not being driven by the driver concerned i.e., Shri Niyas Mohammad. The same story is corroborated by the Traffic Inspector Shri Ram Charan Meena in his affidavit.

4. Counsel for the petitioner relied upon a judgment rendered by the Apex Court in the case of Harijinder Singh v. Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, reported in (2010) 3 SCC 192, the relevant para Nos. 21 & 23 of which are as follows:--

"21. Before concluding, we consider it necessary to observe that while exercising jurisdiction under Articles 226 and/or 227 of the Constitution in matters like the present one, the High Courts are duty-bound to keep in mind that the Industrial Disputes Act and other similar legislative instruments are social welfare legislations and the same are required to be interpreted keeping in view the goals set out in the Preamble of the Constitution and the provisions contained in Part IV thereof in general and Articles 38, 39(a) to (e), 43 and 43-A in particular, which mandate that the State should secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people, ensure equality between men and women and equitable distribution of material resources of the community to subserve the common good and also en-sure that the workers get their dues. More than 41 years ago, Gajendragadkar, J. opined that:

"10.....The concept of social and economic justice is a living concept of revolutionary import; it gives sustenance to the rule of law and meaning and significance to the ideal of welfare State."

23. The Preamble and various articles contained in Part IV of the Constitution promote social justice so that life of every individual becomes meaningful and he is able to live with human dignity. The concept of social justice engrafted in the Constitution consists of diverse principles essentially for the orderly growth and development of personality of every citizen. Social justic