JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying to issue a Certiorari, calling for the records of the impugned charge memo issued by the 2nd respondent in T1(2).Tha.Pa.No.109/2020 dated 20.10.2020 and quash the same.)

1. Heard Mr. S. Harshavardhan, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Mrs. V. Yamuna Devi, learned Special Government Pleader for the respondents.

2. Through a charge memo dated 20.10.2020, two charges came to be framed against the petitioner herein under Rule 17(b) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules. The first charge against the petitioner is that, on 20.04.2019, while he was serving as an Assistant Commissioner of Police, he was not present in the room in which the ballot boxes were kept for the 194 Madurai West Parliament Election, when the Tahsildar of the Excise Department and others entered the storage room, and further that he had failed to give suitable instructions to the Police personnel on duty in this regard and thereby violated Rule 20(1) of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants Conduct Rules. The second charge is that he had failed to stop the Tahsildar of the Excise Departm