ORDER

Rajnish Kumar Rai, Judicial Member In the instant O.A., the applicant is claiming the following reliefs:-

“I) Rescind, recall, withdraw the charge-sheet and the punishment order being the impungned orders AI and A2 issued by Respondent No.4 and the impugned order A3 being the appellate order upholding the punishment order issued by the Respondent No.4;

II) Treat the petitioner as on duty w.e.f. the date of removal from service i.e. 17.01.2018 with appropriate directions for allowing all consequential benefits and effects thereof;

III) Refund the amount of Rs.6,99,223/- as recovered from the petitioner(Annexure A4, collectively) with all interests, fixing the responsibility thereof vis-à-vis the observation of the Appellate Authority in paragraph 20 of the appellate order, forthwith;

IV) Certify and transmit the entire records and papers pertaining to the applicant’s case so that after the causes shown thereof conscionable justice may be done unto the applicant by way of grant of reliefs as prayed for in (i) and (ii), above;

V) Pass such other order/orders and/or further order/orders and/or direction/directions as this Hon’ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper.”

2(a) The case originates from a Post Office Savings Bank fraud case at Dum Dum MDG, Kolkata under North Kolkata Postal Division to the tune of Rs.74 Lac approximately. While the applicant was working as SB counter PA at Dum Dum MDG, Kolkata, on 11.04.2011, it had come to light through public agitation that a sizeable amount invested by the depositors in different savings schemes with Dum Dum MDG have been misappropriated by means of fraudulent withdrawal. One departmental Inquiry Committee had been constituted in order to unearth the actual incident wherefrom it revealed that one postal agent in connivance of the staff of Dum Dum MDG committed the fraud by falsification of documents and the staff of the said post office closed the accounts by showing the withdrawal amount reinvested or transferred to Savings Bank Accounts whereas the amounts were paid in cash instead of cheque by falsification of signature without following the departmental rules. (b) In this connection, the applicant, Sri Jayanta Mondal who was working as Postal Assistant in the Dum Dum MDG, Kolkata was identified as one of the co-<br/>

offenders and from the enquiry conducted by the department, he was found to have been involved in more than 26 misappropriation cases. It was alleged that he did not compare the signature of the depositors with the specimen signatures available with the Post Office record, made payment by cash instead of cheque and allowed closure/premature closure of accounts without obtaining prescribed form of closure.

It was further alleged that the applicant did not reinvest the amount of the mature/premature closure in the name of the depositors though he claimed to do so.

(C ) An FIR was lodged against the applicant in the Dum Dum Police Station i.e.Dum Dum P.S. Case No.151 of 13.03.2013 under Section 420 of IPC for misappropriation of public money from different savings accounts of Dum Dum P.O. and a charge sheet was issued against the applicant under Rule 14 of CCS(CCA) Rules, 1965 vide Office Memo No.F4-1/04/2011/North/J Mondal dated 28.08.2012 with four Articles of Charges, Statement of Imputation of Misconduct and Misbehaviour, List of documents and List of witnesses. Enquiry was conducted against the applicant. The Disciplinary Authority passed the order of punishment against the applicant vide order dated 17.01.2018 whereby the applicant was removed from service with immediate effect with an observation that such removal should not be a disqualification for future employment under Government. The applicant made an appeal against the said order of the Disciplinary Authority on 16.02.2018 to the Respondent No.3 who rejected the appeal of the applicant vide order dated 11.04.2019 upholding