RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT
HON'BLE AMITAVA ROY, CJ. HON'BLE P.K. LOHRA, J.
Special Judge (Essential Commodities Act Cases), Jodhpur & Ors.
Versus
Anand Swaroop Sharma
D.B. Civil Special Appeal (Writ) No. 975 of 2012, decided on 30.05.2013
Appeal dismissed.
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Hon'ble LOHRA, J.—The appellants have preferred this intra-Court appeal against the impugned judgment and order dated 13th September 2012 passed by the learned Single Judge, whereby the writ petition of the respondent-petitioner was partly allowed and the penalty of compulsory retirement was altered and substituted by penalty of withholding annual grade increments with cumulative effect.
2. Stated in succinct, the factual matrix giving rise to this appeal is that while working as Lower Division Clerk in the office of first appellant, Special Judge (Essential Commodities Act Cases), Jodhpur, the respondent-petitioner was served with a memorandum and charge-sheet dated 20th of February 2010 under Rule 16 of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1958 (for brevity, hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules of 1958'). In the charge-sheet, under mentioned three charges were attributed to the respondent.
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3. Responding to memorandum and charge-sheet, the delinquent submitted his reply and denied all the charges. The reply submitted by the respondent was not found to be satisfactory by the disciplinary authority and consequently a regular disciplinary enquiry was ordered against him. The enquiry was conducted by the disciplinary authority himself and in the report the delinquent respondent was indicted for all the three charges. On conclusion of the enquiry, the copy of the enquiry report was furnished to the respondent-employee and thereafter vide order dated 10th May 2010, penalty of compulsory retirement from service with forfeiture of wages for the suspension period other than subsistence allowance was inflicted. The disciplinary authority has also allowed three months' salary to the respondent.
4. Being aggrieved from the order of the disciplinary authority, the respondent preferred an appeal before the appellate authority on 19th of May 2010 and the said appeal was placed before the Appellate Committee of the High Court. The Appellate Committee, after examining the matter in its entirety, dismissed the appeal. Assailing the punishment order and the order of appellate authority, the respondent laid writ petition before the learned single Judge. The learned writ Court granted indulgence to the respondent employee by partly allowing the writ petition.
5. The learned counsel for the appellants, Mr. Vinit Mathur, has vehemently argued that scope of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution is very limited and therefore the learned Single Judge has erred in interfering with the penalty which was inflicted on the delinquent employee as a consequence of his indictment in the departmental enquiry. While buttressing his submissions with full emphasis, Mr. Mathur has argued that the matter was examined threadbare by the appellate authority also, and therefore, it was not desirable for the learned Single Judge to have interfered with the impugned punishment order. Learned counsel for the appellants Mr. Mathur has also contended that when the charges were fully established against the delinquent employee, which were
Union of India & Ors. vs. Narain Singh ((2002) 5 SCC 11) 5
State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur vs. Nemichand Nalwaya ((2011) 4 SCC 584) 6
A.K. Kraipak & Ors. vs. Union of India & Ors. (AIR 1970 SC 150) 7
Arjun Chaubey vs. Union of India & Ors. (AIR 1984 SC 1356) 7
B.C. Chaturvedi vs. Union of India & Ors. (AIR 1996 SC 484) 7
State of Mysore vs. K. Manche Gouda (AIR 1964 SC 506) 7
Bhagat Ram vs. Himachal Pradesh & Ors. ((1983) 2 SCC 442) 10
Ranjit Thakur vs. Union of India & Ors. ((1987 4 SCC 611) 12
Om Kumar & Ors. vs. Union of India ((2001) 2 SCC 386) 15
Coal India Limited vs. Mukul Kumar Choudhari ((2009) 15 SCC 620) 16
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