The central legal point established is that termination of an employee requires compliance with the principles of natural justice, including giving the employee an opportunity to be heard.

JUDGMENT :

B.R. Sarangi, J.

1. The petitioner, by means of this writ petition, seeks for following reliefs:

":.....to issue a Rule NISI calling upon the opp-parties to show cause as to why Annexure-11 refusing acceptance of Caste Certificate of the petitioner which was submitted under Annexure-10 shall not be accepted and as to why the order of termination shall be quashed and as to why the petitioner shall not be reinstated in his service as before;

And if the opposite parties fail to show cause or show insufficient cause the rule may be made absolute against the opp-parties and a writ of mandamus may be issued to the opp-parties particularly the opp-party No. 2 and 3 to allow the petitioner to join in his post;"

2. The factual matrix of the case, in hand, is that the petitioner belonged to scheduled tribe community being sub tribe 'Sabar' and is a permanent resident of village Bajpur under Khurda district in the State of Odisha. He was selected by following due process of selection and appointed as Operator-V (Field) in the L.P.G. Bottling Plant at Khurda, as a scheduled tribe candidate, pursuant to order dated 25.01.1999 issued by opposite party No. 3 in Annexure-1, At the time of his entry into service, the petitioner had produced a caste certificate issued by the Tahasildar, Khurda in Misc. Case No. 330 of 1991. The opposite parties, being satisfied with the documents produced by the petitioner, allowed him to discharge his duty and confirmed his service by letter dated 18.05.2000 in Annexure-3. Subsequently, considering the performance of the petitioner, the opposite parties promoted him to the post of Operative-IV(F) (Mobile) Lab. Attendant-cum-Helper, by letter dated 10.02.2004 in Annexure-4.

2.1. When the position stood thus, opposite party No. 2 wrote a letter to the petitioner on 02.05.2006 calling upon him to submit an explanation within seven days as to why his service with the Corporation would not be terminated, as the information and certificate furnished by him with regard to his caste is not genuine. The petitioner sought for time to produce caste certificate, but he could not do so within time specified. Again, vide letter dated 30.07.2007, the petitioner was intimated that he failed to produce the caste certificate, as almost 1 year and 2 months passed, therefore submit the same without further delay. Since he could not submit the caste certificate, as demanded by the authority, he was terminated from service vide letter dated 18.03.2008 in Annexure-7 granting one month salary. Subsequently, the petitioner obtained a caste certificate on 25.04.2008 issued by the Tahasildar, Khurda in Misc. Case No. 66, and submitted a representation on 28.04.2008 to opposite party No. 2 for reinstating him in service. As no action was taken on his representation, the petitioner approached this Court by filing W.P.(C) No. 16013 of 2009 seeking direction to the opposite parties to accept the caste certificate issued by the Tahasildar, Khurda in Misc. Case No. 66 dated 25.04.2008 and reinstate the petitioner in service by quashing, Annexure-7. This Court disposed of the said writ application by order dated 26.03.2014 directing the opposite parties to consider the grievance of the petitioner taking into; account caste certificate issued by the Tahasildar, Khurda under Annexure-10 dated 25.04.2008 and pass necessary order. Though such order was produced before the authority concerned, along with the caste certificate issued by the competent authority, the opposite party No. 2 passed the order impugned on 25.04.2014 in Annexure-11 stating that under Clause 8(i) of the appointment letter dated 25.01.1999, while he was appointed as Operator-V (Field) in the Corporation, the appointment was offered on the basis of correct information furnished regarding his past service, and that if at any time it is revealed that employment has been obtained by furnishing false information or withholding pertinent information, the Corporation will be fre