JUDGMENT :

J.J. MUNIR, J.

The District Cane Officer, Meerut, by his order dated 31st March, 2021, has terminated the services of Avinash Yadav, a one-time Peon in the Office of the Senior Cane Development Inspector, Meerut, a man missing since 13.04.2010, with his whereabouts not known to those who would normally have heard of him, if alive, retrospectively from the date he went missing.

2. It appears that Avinash Yadav disappeared from the lives of his family members as well as his employers on 13.04.2010. He has not been heard of eversince. While the family, particularly, the petitioner, his wife, a handicapped woman with 60% disability in her lower limb, has been destituted, waiting in vain for her missing husband, the respondents, who are Avinash’s employers, think that he is guilty of absenteeism from duty. They have punished him on those charges by the order impugned, with retrospective effect, after holding a departmental inquiry, as already said, more than ten years after he went missing.

3. The facts giving rise to this petition are these :

The petitioner, Kamlesh Yadav alias Kumari Kamlesh Yadav’s husband, Avinash Yadav, was a Class IV employee, a Peon in the Office of the Sen