( 1 ) BOTH the petitions raise similar question of law to be determined. The petitioner in either was employed -- in one case as relieving trains clerk at Aligarh and in the other as assistant goods clerk at Hathras Killah station. They were prosecuted for offences under Section 409 I. P. C. , in relation to certain acts done by them in the performance of their duties. Ram Nath Gautam, petitioner in writ petition No. 3729 of 1959, was also prosecuted in the same transaction for an offence under Section 477-A I. P. C. also. The Magistrate who tried the petitioners on these charges convicted them for the said offences by his order dated 18-12-1956. A few days later they filed appeals before the Sessions Judge, Aligarh who allowed the same on 15-2-1958. Before, however, the appeals could be disposed of by the learned Sessions Judge but after they had been instituted before him, the Divisional Superintendent, Allahabad, who was the appointing authority in the case of the two petitioners, dismissed them from service by his order dated 25-2-1957. Admittedly the petitioners were not charge-sheeted separately by the departmental authorities. No enquiry either was held agai