By the Court.—A programme based on a sting operation conducted upon the petitioner and other employees of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Agra (FSL Agra), was telecast on 9 August 2007 on the news channel Star News under the caption “Kanoon Ke Killer”. The petitioner, who was holding the post of Deputy Director, Forensic Science Laboratory, Agra at the relevant time, was shown demanding illegal gratification for giving a favourable forensic report.

2. On 18 September 2007, the petitioner was placed under suspension, pending disciplinary enquiry into the incident. It was followed by a charge-sheet dated 3 December 2007. It is stated in the charge-sheet that in a preliminary enquiry conducted by Superintendent of Police (Technical Services), U.P. Lucknow and Director, Forensic Laboratory, U.P. Lucknow, the petitioner was found, prima facie, involved in corruption. It further contains a recital that the act and conduct of the petitioner, as portrayed in the programme aired on the T.V. Channel on 9 August 2007, was objectionable and unbecoming of the post held by him. It has resulted in lowering the image of the Department and causing irreparable injury to it.

3. The petitioner contested the proceedings, emphatically denying having asked any illegal gratification. He took a specific plea that the programme, as aired, wrongly portrayed him demanding bribe, though he never asked for it. In fact, he emphatically rejected the offer when made to him. The entire episode was stage-managed by one of his colleagues Santosh Kumar Kuril, Senior Scientific Assistant, against whom the petitioner had been a witness in a criminal case. The reporters of the news channel, who carried out the sting operation, had continuously been in touch with him, as is evident from the CDR. The entire programme aired on the channel was based on doctored and manipulated video footages. The alleged original footage handed over by the news channel to the Department, the investigating agencies and the petitioner, had been fabricated and morphed, the relevant parts of the conversation had been omitted or the seriatum changed. The original memory card, in which the recording was done, had not been produced. The transcript of the Programme was prepared by omitting relevant portions of the conversation, by morphing the faces, by changing the contexts, only to enhance the TRP of the Programme. Totally false aspersions have been cast on the petitioner, who has to his credit an unblemished service record.

4. During the course of enquiry the petitioner as well as several other witnesses were examined. The Inquiry Officer thereafter submitted report dated 5 September 2012 recommending action being taken against the petitioner under Rule 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1999 (Rules 1999) and for withholding his integrity. It was followed by impugned order dated 29 August 2014 by the first respondent imposing penalty of removal from service which does not disqualify from future employment. Aggrieved thereby, the instant writ petition has been filed.

5. Shri Udayan Nandan, counsel for the petitioner submitted that the original recording, which is contained in the memory chip of the two cameras used by the reporters of the T.V. Channel, had not been made available to the investigating agencies or to the petitioner, albeit a specific plea by the petitioner that the C.D. containing the footage of the episode, had been doctored, manipulated and morphed. It is submitted that seriatum of the conversation had been manipulated so as to convey a different meaning altogether than what it was intended to. The petitioner had repeatedly demanded the original recording, but the said request was brushed aside in a casual manner. The authenticity of the CD having not been proved, the entire proceedings stand vitiated. Sri Jameer Ahmad Khan, the cameraman, who conducted the sting operation, was not cross-examined, although the petitioner made a