CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL JAMMU BENCH Present: Hon’ble Mr. Rajinder Singh Dogra, Member (J)

Hon’ble Mr.Ram Mohan Johri, Member (A)

Sunil Gupta, Age 48 yrs, S/o Pishori Lal Gupta R/o W. No. 17, Sailan Talab, Village Kallar Tehsil & District Udhampur.

……Applicant VERSUS

1. State of Jammu & Kashmir Through its Commissioner Secretary, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Civil Secretariat Jammu/ Srinagar.

2. Director, Rural Development, Jammu.

3. Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Udhampur.

4. Block Development Officer. Mongri.

...Respondents For the applicant : Mr. Anuj Dewan Raina, counsel For the respondents : Mr. Dewakar Sharma, ld. DAG Heard on : 2.4.2025 Pronounced on : 8.9.2025 O R D E R Per Hon’ble Mr. Rajinder Singh Dogra, J.M.

The applicant being aggrieved of the order dated 16.5.2017 filed SWP No. 1255 of 2018 before the Hon’ble High Court. After the promulgation of the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 and the formation of UT of J&K, the case was made over to this Tribunal where it was re-numbered as TA 6931/2020. The applicant has prayed for the following relief :

I. CERTIORARI: To Quash and set-aside the deemed suspension under rule 31(2) of CCA Rules and suspension vide order no. 372-DRD of 2017 dated: 16- 05-2017 passed by the respondent no. 2 which is out of authority, illegal and turned out bad with time in terms of law and catena of Supreme court Judgments.

II. MANDAMUS: Commanding the respondents to reinstate the petitioner in the same office and allow him to mark the attendance and ensure his peaceful tenure there.

II. MANDAMUS: Declaring that the suspension period beyond 60 days is bad in law in light of Supreme Court judgment and on the basis of state Cr.P.C.

IV. MANDAMUS: Commanding the respondents to release the salary /subsistence allowance of the petitioner from the date of the suspension at the earliest possible time.

2. The fact of the case is that -

a) The applicant joined the Government Services as Draftsman vide order dated 1.12.1992 in the P.W.D (R&B) Department. Meanwhile he applied for the post of Junior Engineer and got selected in the year 1996 vide order dated 24.6.1999 and was appointed in 1999 and got deputed to the R.E.W Department on deputation basis and was working peacefully in the same department.

b) One Sh. Payar Singh S/o Sh. Sobha Ram, a resident of village Parand Tehsil Moungri and District Udhampur filed a complaint on 13.5.2017 before the Senior Superintendent of Police, Vigilance Organization of Udhampur wing and in the instant complaint, the said complainant alleged that the applicant has demanded a bribe of Rs. 25000/- in lieu of issuance of second indent of cement for another work taken up by the complainant, whereas there was no question of issuance of cement to him because the cement store of Block Office was out of stock for the period for which allegation was made and the same was communicated to the complainant by the applicant as well as by the VLW concerned.

c) Pursuant to the above complaint lodged by the complainant on fictitious facts, the Vigilance organization Udhampur (VOJ) laid down the trap on 13.5.2017 at the Dhar Road Udhampur and recovered the alleged amount of Rs. 25000/- from the applicant at same place. FIR No. 18/2017, dated 13.5.2017 was registered in VOJ under section 5(1)(d) read with 5(2) Jammu and Kashmir PC act while alleged demanding and accepting of bribe amount and the applicant was taken into custody by the Vigilance Organization. It is further submitted that the detention of the applicant was extended beyond 48 hours and thus he was deemed to be under suspension as per the rule 31 (2) of CC&A Rules.

d) The applicant was on suspension for last more than 05 years and so far no enquiry has been initiated by the department and no charge sheet has been served upon the applicant which is violative of CCA Rules and in light of the Supreme Court judgment. Hon’ble Apex Court in Ajay Kumar Choudhary Vs UOI & Ors held that currency of a Suspension Order shou