By the Court.—Heard Shri Saral Srivastava appearing for the Union of India and others-the petitioners. Shri Ram Avatar Varma and Shri Kirtikar Pande have appeared for Shri Ram Bahor Yadav-respondent No. 1.

2. The petitioner was appointed as a ‘Booking Clerk’ on 27.7.1986 and was posted at Izzat Nagar Division in North Eastern Railway. He was transferred to Varanasi in the year 1990 and was thereafter posted as ‘Head Booking Clerk’ in the year 2004. He was charge-sheeted on 27.7.2006 with the allegations of his involvement alongwith Shri Rajendra Prasad and Shri Satyabrat Tiwari in the sale of forged tickets from Azamgarh to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. The facts were confirmed in an enquiry at Azamgarh Station from 23.12.2005. It was alleged that the tickets were provided by the petitioner and that he used to collect the money from its sales. The conduct of the petitioner was found to make his integrity doubtful and was also found to be a misconduct under Rule 3(1) and sub-rules (i), (ii) and (iii) of the Railways Service (Conduct) Rules, 1966.

3. Shri P.C. Gaur, a retired Deputy Finance Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer, was appointed as enquiry officer. It is contended that th