Unilateral act or conduct of a person that is to say act or conduct of one person which is not relied upon by another person to his detriment, is nothing more than mere waiver, acquiescence or laches, while act or conduct of a person amounting to an abandonment of his right and inducing another person to change his position to his detriment certainly raises the bar of estoppel.

JUDGMENT :

Sashikanta Mishra, J.

The petitioner was a directly recruited as Forest Ranger being appointed as such on 07.01.1987 and was working as Range Officer, Tarava KL Range under the administrative control of the DFO, Bolangir KL Division. While working as such, certain charges were framed against the petitioner by letter dated 08.03.1994 by the opposite party no.2 and he was called upon to submit his explanation. The charges related to misappropriation of welfare fund amounting to Rs.37,198/-, manipulation of public money by keeping huge CB more than Rs.2 lakhs for personal benefit, serious financial irregularities by incurring unauthorized expenditure and disobedience of orders. The petitioner submitted a representation for supply of copies of certain documents to enable him to submit his effective explanation but the same were not supplied. He was also not permitted to inspect the documents or to take extracts thereof. As such, he submitted his explanation on 22.07.1996 denying the charges framed against him. His explanation being found to be not satisfactory, an enquiry officer was appointed and enquiry was conducted in which he participated. The enquiry officer recorded the statement of the petitioner and submitted his enquiry report on 21.07.2002 to the opposite party no.1 holding that the charges had been established and recommended punishment of recovery of certain amounts from the petitioner along with stoppage of five annual increments with cumulative effect. Despite submission of enquiry report, the disciplinary proceeding was not finalized and after lapse of about 12 years, the opposite party no.2, vide letter dated 06.06.2013 issued the first show cause notice to the petitioner asking him to submit his reply within 10 days. The petitioner submitted his reply on 05.07.2013. Since no action was taken in the matter, the petitioner submitted a representation on 31.03.2014 requesting to finalize the proceeding at an early date. While the matter should thus, the petitioner approached the erstwhile Orissa Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 3507(C) of 2014 with prayer to quash the charge and the disciplinary proceeding initiated on 08.03.1994. During pendency of the said O.A., the opposite party no.1, as per his office order dated 26.05.2015, finalized the disciplinary proceeding inflicting penalty of recovery of Rs. 2,05,329.90 and withholding of five annual increments with cumulative effect. Since the disciplinary proceeding was finalized after about 21 years of its initiation, the petitioner approached the Orissa Administrative Tribunal again by filing O.A. No. 2281 (C) of 2015, which has since been transferred to this Court and registered as the instant writ petition. The petitioner originally claimed the following relief:

“Under the circumstances it is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Tribunal may graciously be pleased to direct the respondents to quash the Departmental proceedings under Annexure-1 and the final order passed in Annexure-7.

And/or pass any other orders/orders as this Hon’ble Tribunal deems fit and proper in the case;

And allow this original application with cost.”

During pendency of the O.A./writ petition, citing several developments the petitioner amended the writ application to incorporate all such facts. It was brought on record that during pendency of the writ application the petitioner had submitted a representation before the Promotion Adalat as he had been deprived of promotion to the post of ACF and after receipt of the same, the opposite party no.1 by letter dated 21.05.2020 intimated the opposite party no.3 to inform regarding the completion of the punishment period of the petitioner and the status of recovery of the amount imposed upon him on finalization of the D.P. Pursuant to such letter, the opposite party no.3 vide letter dated 06.08.2020 intimated the Deputy Director of Nandankanan Zoological Park, Bhubaneswar with request to recover the amount imposed by way of punishment in the D.P.