JUDGMENT :

1. In the year 2014, Dinesh Kumar Katiyar, the Respondent, was working as Soil Conservation Officer in Samadesh Bandhu, U.P. Civil Secretariat, Lucknow. The State Government issued a charge-sheet dated 21.04.2014 charging him as follows:

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2. On 13.07.2015, the State Government issued a corrigendum to the charge-sheet dated 21.04.2014, amending the figure Rs. 2,25,739/-, wherever it appeared in the charge-sheet by the figure Rs. 3,96,500/-. On 10.09.2015, a supplementary charge-sheet was issued to the Respondent with an additional charge of withdrawal of Rs. 76,500/-. On 09.08.2016, the Respondent submitted his reply denying the charges levelled against him. On 28.12.2016, the Inquiry Officer submitted his inquiry report. Thereafter, a show cause notice dated 16.01.2017 was issued to the Respondent. On 07.02.2017, the Respondent submitted his reply to the said show cause notice. The State Government passed the punishment order dated 11.08.2017, whereby the Respondent was ordered to be reverted to the initial pay scale and a sum of Rs. 4,72,000/-was ordered to be recovered from him. The order dated 11.08.2017 was served upon the Respondent on 31.08.2017. In compliance of the order dated 11.08.2017, the Administrator, Greater Sharda Sahayak Command, passed an order dated 07.11.2017 fixing the salary of the Respondent at Rs. 35,400/-as on 11.08.2017, in the basic pay scale of Junior Engineer.

3. The Respondent assailed the punishment order dated 11.08.2017, as well as the consequential order dated 07.11.2017, before the U.P. State Public Services Tribunal (for short 'the Tribunal') in Claim Petition No. 2079 of 2017, Dinesh Kumar Katiyar v. State of