treat the said period as spent on duty for all purposes.

Case of the petitioner:

3) The case of the petitioner, in brief, in the writ petition is that the petitioner was appointed in Food Corporation of India (FCI for short) as Deputy Manager (General) on 10.04.2000. In course of his service, he was transferred from time to time and he was also promoted from time to time.

4) While serving in FCI, Regional Office, Bhopal, a discipline a disciplinary proceeding was drawn up against the petitioner in respect of certain irregularities while he was serving in Borivalli, Maharashtra and by order dated 25.04.2017, he was given punishment of reduction in pay scale by 2 (two) stages for a period of one year. Against the said order, the petitioner had filed an appeal and the Chairman, FCI (Respondent no.2), by an order dated 27.06.2019, his punishment was scaled down to pay scale being reduced by 1 (one) stage for a period of one year without cumulative effect.

5) Thereafter, by an order dated 06.11.2019, the petitioner was promoted to the post of General Manager (General) and was posted at Zonal Office (West), Mumbai and then he was posted at Zonal Office, Guwahati as General Manager (General) and was also given additional charge of the General Manager (R), FCI, Regional Office, Arunachal Pradesh. While serving as such, the petitioner was served with the impugned order dated 12.06.2023, thereby compulsorily retiring him from service by invoking Regulation 22(2) of the FCI Staff Regulations, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as “FCI Staff Regulation” for short) (as amended vide notification dated 02.06.2021).

6) The petitioner then submitted an appeal dated 21.06.2023 to the Appellate Authority to withdraw the order dated 12.06.2023 and to reinstate him. However, the respondent no.3, by an order dated 14.08.2023, rejected the petitioner’s said appeal. Hence, this writ petition.

Case of the respondents:

7) The stand of the respondents in their affidavit-in-opposition is that the service conditions of the FCI employees are governed by the FCI Staff Regulations, which has been framed under the provisions of section 45 of the Food Corporations Act, 1964. Moreover, with previous sanction from the Central Government, circulars, etc. are also issued from time to time. The provisions of Regulation 22(2) provides for premature retirement of Category-I and II employees after attaining the age of 50 years after giving him a notice of not less than three months in writing or three months’ pay and allowances in lieu of such notice, subject to entering into service before attaining the age of 35 years and after he has attained the age of 50 years, and in any other case, after he has attained the age of 55 years.

8) The Review Committee conducts periodical review of the employees of FCI under Regulation 22(2) of the FCI Staff Regulation. The matter relating to the petitioner was reviewed by the Review Committee by following the guidelines contained under the said Regulation 22(2) of FCI Staff Regulation, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT for short) OM dated 28.08.2020 and paragraph-10 of the FCI Circular dated 09.07.2021 and thereupon the Review Committee made its recommendation to the appropriate authority after considering the entire service record of the petitioner, including memos, show-cause notices, charge-sheets, penalties, Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR’s for short) grading, remarks about integrity and general reputation of the petitioner in the organization. Accordingly, the impugned order dated 12.06.2021 was issued.

9) The representation dated 21.06.2021, was forwarded to the Representation Committee, which observed that on 6 (six) occasions, the petitioner was issued memos/ show-cause notices/ charge-sheets indicating various allegations of misconduct, out of which two charge-sheets were under major penalty clause of Regulation 58 of the FCI Staff Regulation. Moreover, as per the petitioner’s APAR’s assessment prior to 2009, he had