ORDER:

This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief:

“to issue a direction, order or writ more particularly one in the nature of writ of Certiorari:

a. Calling for all the relevant records related to and connected with Rc.No.A1/180/2019 dated 28.1.2020 of the 3rd Respondent as also Rc.No.COE 13025(43)/86/2019 C SEC Endowments dated 23.1.2020 of the 2nd Respondent (not issued to the Petitioner) and quash or set aside the same holding it as arbitrary, illegal, unjust, violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India;

b. Consequently, direct the 3rd Respondent to reinstate the petitioner together with all benefits treating the entire period of suspension as spent on duty and release monetary and other service benefits that flow out of the quashing of the impugned order and granting the direction prayed for”

The petitioner was appointed on Nominal Muster Roll Basis in the third respondent - Devasthanam and joined in the service on 01.11.1989. He has been regularized as a helper in 1992 and was granted time scale in 1994. By virtue of seniority, he was promoted as Record Assistant in 2009; Junior Assistant in 2009 and Senior Assistant in 2011.

As a matter of routine transfers, the petitioner was posted in the Indian Oil Corporation petrol bunk managed by the 3rd Respondent Devasthanam. As the petrol bunk is wholly managed by the Devasthanam and in view of shortage of manpower and also in consonance with the present policy of the Devasthanam, the personnel physically managing the petrol bunk are employees from the outsourcing agency, while the maintenance of stock position, loading and unloading, payment to be made to the Indian Oil Corporation etc. are being taken care of by regular employees of the 3rd Respondent Devasthanam. The functioning of the petrol bunk i.e., the duties of both the outsourced employees and the regular employees is entrusted to the Superintendent who works under the Assistant Executive Officer who is the overall in-charge of the petrol bunk.

As the outsourced employees handle dispensing petrol and diesel to the customers, collection of amount sale of towards that head, remittance of the amount into the Devasthanam, shall done by them. The outsourced employee will ensure compliance of this requirement and the Superintendent is bound to ensure strict compliance of their duties. The Assistant Executive Officer who is the overall in-charge would be vicariously liable for the commissions and omissions of the outsourced employees. As there was no supervision on the working of outsourced employees, taking advantage of the said fact, they appear to misappropriated the collections from the petrol bunk instead of remitting it into the third respondent – Devasthanam. When the accounts of the petrol bunk were audited by the Assistant Audit Officer, State Audit, it was reported that there were short remittances from the petrol bunk. The Assistant Commissioner was asked to look into the same and submit a report. Strangely, the said officer constituted a Committee for the purpose, comprising of three supervisors and assistants. The said Committee made it categorically clear that one Gurumurthy and Anil Kumar, outsourced employees were responsible for the short remittance and in fact, they have misappropriated the money. The outsourcing agency, M/s. Srisaileswara Agencies Limited, who were the principal employer of the outsourced employees, was called upon to remit the amount of Rs.41,69,402/-. Criminal action also was sought to be initiated against those two employees wherein they have been shown as Accused 1 and 2 respectively. The said accused, in their confessional statements, implicated the petitioner along with one Sri G.Ravi who, according to them were the employees of the 3rd Respondent Devasthanam working in the petrol bunk. Based on the confessional statement, the petitioner has been arrayed as Accused No.4 in Crime No. 51 of 2019 on the file of Srisailam I