Punishments must be proportionate to the misconduct and not shock the conscience of the court.

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner (now deceased) had filed the present petition for quashing the order No. 35 Bn/Estt/GSFC-MSB/2002/42-45 dated 02.01.2002, by virtue of which 15 years of the service for the purpose of promotion and 10 years of the service for the purpose of pension of the petitioner was forfeited and the petitioner was also severely reprimanded. The petitioner has also sought the quashing of the proceedings of the General Security Force Court and the charges framed against the petitioner. The prayer has also been made for quashing the order No. 6/72/2002/Petition/CLO(D&L)/BSF/2661-64 dated 11.03.2002 passed by the Chief Law Officer (D&L) on behalf of the Director-General of BSF, by virtue of which “mercy appeal” of the petitioner was rejected being devoid of merit. After the demise of the original petitioner, the present petition is being prosecuted by the wife of the deceased-petitioner (for reference “the petitioner” shall mean “the deceased-petitioner”).

2. The petitioner after mentioning his past service credentials has stated that false and frivolous allegations were levelled against the petitioner and the charge under Section 30 (b) of the BSF Act was framed against the petitioner on 12.10.2001 on the allegations of dishonestly misappropriating the property belonging to the Government. The false allegations were that at Samba between August 1996 to December 1998, the petitioner while performing the duties of Unit “Q” Clerk dishonestly misappropriated a sum of Rs. 87,004.48 received from various Coys of 35 Bn. on account of casual diet charges. It is stated that the petitioner had deposited an amount of Rs. 2,41,992.91 in the Government Treasury through cashier/accountant of 35 Bn. BSF. The treasury receipt was not issued in respect of amount in question and the same was kept pending, as the Commandant during Company Commanders Conference ordered for the stoppage of depositing of the same amount into the Government Treasury and further advised for utilization of the said amount for the improvement of company mess. That was done on the verbal instructions of Commandant during conference. As there was some difference in the amount of money received by the companies, which was required to be refunded, the same could not be done because the Unit was moving and the petitioner was also assigned the duties to hire civil transport from local State Government Authorities, which took considerable time as the movement of the Unit was uncertain and also the disposal of land cases was one of the main concern. During that period, the petitioner also fell ill and remained under treatment for 70 days. During the illness, the unit of the petitioner moved to new location and HC Rajinder Parsad visited the home of the petitioner to seek his help in sorting out the board proceedings of tentage required to be handed over to the incoming unit. The petitioner enquired from him regarding his office almirah, which was kept double locked in the office, as the petitioner had kept the cash in almirah and instructed Rajinder Parshad to look after almirah. The petitioner after recovering from illness and after rejoining enquired about the said Almirah from HC Ramesh Chand, who told the petitioner that his office almirah had been kept in the store duly locked and a paper patch was pasted by Subedar J P Nathani. The petitioner had not misappropriated any amount, as the amount was lying in the almirah and was deposited in Government Treasury vide receipt No. GG-154873 dated 23.12.1999.

3. The petitioner has challenged the orders impugned and also the proceedings of the General Security Force Court on the grounds that the respondents have not followed any of the provisions of the BSF Act and the rules framed thereunder. In the petition, the petitioner has hardly left any rule, which as per the petitioner, has not been violated by the respondents. As per the petitioner, the whole of the proceedings initiated and conducted were contrary to the BSF