Ashok Kumar Gaur, J.

The petitioner, who is an employee of the Punjab National Bank, has filed the instant petition challenging the penalty order dated 16.01.1998 whereby major penalty of "dismissal from Bank's service" has been imposed on him. The appeal filed by the petitioner against the punishment order has also been dismissed by the appellate authority vide order dated 22.12.1998 and the same is also impugned in the instant petition.

2. The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner was issued a chargesheet dated 05.10.1996 (Annex.4) along with statement of article of charge and statement of imputation of charge, in support thereof. It was alleged in the statement of article of charge that the petitioner while working as an officer at Branch Office MI Road, Jaipur had accommodated M/s. Asean Industrial Structures Limited in an unauthorized manner and he acted in collusion with other agents in a manner detrimental to the small investors and accepted the applications for shares after the closure of the issue in violation of SEBI/Bank guidelines and he concealed the facts from his higher authorities which was unbecoming of a Bank Officer. The said acts of the petitioner were found to be misconduct, in terms of Regulation 3(1) read with Regulation 24 of the Punjab National Bank Officer Employees (Conduct) Regulations, 1977. The statement of article of charge against the petitioner is reproduced hereunder:-

PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK

ZONAL OFFICE: JAIPUR

ANNEXURE-I

STATEMENT OF ARTICLE OF CHARGE AGAINST SHRI B.M.JHANWAR, OFFICER (UNDER SUSPENSION), BO: M.I. ROAD, JAIPUR.

ARTICLE : I

While working as an officer at BO: M.I. Road, Jaipur Shri Jhanwar has accommodated M/s. Asean Industrial Structures Limited in an unauthorized manner inasmuch as he acted in collusion with other agents in a manner detrimental to the small investors and accepted the applications for shares after the closure of the issue in violation of SEBI/Bank guidelines. He concealed the facts from his higher authorities which is unbecoming of a bank officer.

The above acts of Shri Jhanwar constitute misconduct in terms of Regulation 3(1) read with Regulation 24 of the Punjab National Bank Officer Employees (Conduct) Regulations, 1977.

Sd/-

ZONAL MANAGER

DISCIPLINARY AUTHORITY

3. The statement of imputation of charge in support of article of charge, against the petitioner was supplied to him as Annexure-II and the details of application which was received after closure of public issue were supplied as Annexure-III along with the chargesheet to the petitioner.

4. The petitioner after receipt of chargesheet submitted his reply/written statement of defence dated 04.11.1996. The petitioner denied the charge leveled against him. The petitioner had pleaded in his reply that he was the junior most officer working in the Merchant Banking Cell of the Branch Office. The Cell was controlled by the Chief Manager, Senior Manager and Functional Manager of the Branch. He further stated in his reply that looking to the volume of work in the Branch, a system of concurrent audit was evolved in the Branch and day-to-day irregularities, if any observed by the auditor, the same were reported to the higher authorities.

5. The petitioner submitted that he had not acted in collusion with any other agent to accept the applications after closure of the issue and if the applications had been accepted after closure of the issue, the issue itself had been cancelled/devolved by SEBI to protect the interest of the small investors & the petitioner had no role in such development and on the contrary the controlling Branch should not have accepted the final certificate, said to be issued by the petitioner.

6. The petitioner also pointed out that the senior Officers/higher authorities were also responsible at the same time for checking of the work done by the subordinate Officers in the Branch and as such the petitioner had requested that chargesheet had been issued on frivolous grounds and the petitione