The petitioner, a retired Revenue Officer of second

respondent 3 Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike

[BBMP] is before this Court under Articles 226 of the

Constitution of India questioning the correctness and

legality of Articles of charge dated 12.11.2020 bearing

No.UPLOK-1/DE-189/2020/ARE-9 and Charge Memo

bearing No.£ÀCE 20 JAJ£ïf 2020, ¨ÉAUÀ¼ÀÆgÀÄ, dated

19.10.2020

entrusting

the

enquiry

to

the

Upalokayuktha to hold the departmental enquiry

against the petitioner and the others under Rule 14-A of

Karnataka Civil Services [Classification, Control and

Appeal] Rules, 1957 [for short the Rules].

2.

Heard

the

learned

counsel

Sri.J.M.Jayadevaiah for the petitioner, learned Principal

Government Advocate Sri.T.P.Srinivas for respondent

3

No.1,

learned

counsel

Sri.B.V.Muralidhar

for

respondent No.2 and learned counsel Sri.H.D.Kumar for

learned counsel Sri.V.S.Arabatti for the respondent

No.3.

3.

Learned counsel for the petitioner would

submit that the petitioner retired from service from the

second respondent 3 BBMP on attaining the age of

superannuation on 30.08.2014. After more than 6 years

from the date of retirement of the petitioner, the

respondent No.1 entrusted the enquiry against the

petitioner and others under Government Order dated

19.10.2020 [Annexure-C] to Upalokayuktha under Rule

14-A of the Rules and in turn, the third respondent

issued Articles of Charge dated 12.10.2020, in respect

of an incident which had taken place during the years

2007 and 2009. Learned counsel would submit that the

enquiry against a retired person for an incident more

than 4 years prior to her retirement would not be

maintainable in terms of Rule 214 (2) (b)(ii) of the

Karnataka Civil Services Rules [for short KCSRs].

4

Learned counsel would further submit that entrusting

of enquiry to the third respondent and issuing of the

Articles of Charge by third respondent is without

jurisdiction and opposed to Rule 214(2)(b)(ii) of the

KCSRs. Only on this ground, it is submitted that the

Charge memo as well as entrustment of enquiry is liable

to be quashed.

4.

Per

contra,

learned

counsel

Sri.B.V.Muralidhar for respondent No.2 would submit

that in terms of the report under Section 12[3] of the

Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 [for short 1984 Act],

under order dated 26.05.2020 the enquiry was referred

to Upalokayuktha and Articles of Charges were issued

under the impugned order. It is submitted that since

the incident had come to light subsequent to retirement

of the petitioner, the enquiry is initiated against the

petitioner and other officials.

5.

Learned counsel Sri.H.D.Kumar for learned

counsel Sri.V.S.Arabatti for the respondent No.3 would

5

submit that the allegation is not only against the

petitioner and it also involves other employees. The

incident beginning from 2007 to 2017 is taken to

initiate the enquiry against the officials. Thus, the

learned counsel appearing for the respondents pray for

dismissal of the writ petition.

6.

Having heard the learned counsel for the

petitioner and the learned counsel for the respondents

and on going through the writ petition, the only point

that arises for consideration is,

<Whether the impugned Articles of

Charges dated 12.11.2020 is hit by Rule

214(2)(b)(ii) of the KCSRs?=

Answer to the above point is held in the Affirmative for

the following reasons:

A perusal of the Articles of Charge would indicate

that the petitioner was working in the Bommanahalli

Division, BBMP from 30.08.2010 to 26.04.2013. The

enquiry against the petitioner is for an incident that

6

while she was working in Bommanahalli Division as

Revenue Officer. Admittedly, the petitioner retired on

attaining the age of superannuation on 30.08.2014.

7.

Rule 214(2)(b)(ii) of KCSRs reads as follows:

<214

(2)

(b)

The

departmental

proceedings, if not instituted

while the

Government servant was in service, whether

before his retirement or during his re-

employment.

(i) &..

(ii) shall not be in respect of any event

which took place more than four years b