Departmental proceedings require credible evidence to substantiate charges against employees, and decisions based on conjecture are legally insufficient.

ORDER

Pleadings were complete and with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, the matters were heard on 09.12.2024 and today the order is being pronounced. Notably, these two writ petitions involve similar issue as in both the petitions, although the petitioners are different and posted on different posts, but they have been inflicted similar punishment of dismissal from service arising out of departmental enquiry in which they faced the similar charge of causing pecuniary loss to the government. For the sake convenience, the facts of W.P.No.7296/2017 are taken into consideration.

2. By the writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner is challenging the order dated 09.12.2015 (Annexure-P/9) passed by the disciplinary authority inflicting punishment of dismissal from service after conducting a regular departmental enquiry and by order dated 12.04.2017 (Annexure-

P/12), the appeal preferred by the petitioner has also been dismissed.

3. The challenge is founded mainly on the ground that it is a case of ‘no evidence’. In the matter of departmental enquiry, although strict rules of evidence are not applicable, but still it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the charge and produce some cogent evidence against the delinquent, but it is not done and there is no evidence available on record or produced by the prosecution during the course of enquiry so as to draw inference that the charge levelled against the petitioner is found proved. According to the petitioner, the order of disciplinary authority deserves to be set aside and in consequence thereto, the order of appellate authority would automatically topple.

4. By filing a reply, the respondent-State has taken a stand that the disciplinary authority on the basis of material available on record has drawn an inference and held that the petitioner was guilty of misappropriation of government money by making a payment to the work done by the contractor without verifying whether the work was actually done or not and as such the monetary loss has been caused to the government. Therefore, nothing wrong has been committed by the authorities. Learned counsel for the respondent-State has tried to establish that in the matters of departmental enquiry, scope of interference by the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution is very limited. It is pointed out that during the course of enquiry, two witnesses namely Sumati Kumar, Divisional Accounts Officer, PWD and Shri D.P. Tiwari, Draftsman, PWD, Dindori were examined and enquiry report (Annexure-P/5) contains as to how the charge levelled against the petitioner has been found proved and therefore the disciplinary authority did not commit any illegality in passing the order of removal from service and recovering the amount of loss caused to the government. Relying upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of B.C. Chaturvedi v. Union of India (1995) 6 SCC 749, learned counsel submitted that only in case of violation of principles of natural justice or any statutory rules, the interference is permissible by the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution, but not otherwise. He further submitted that the writ court exercising power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is not hearing the appeal and cannot act as appellate authority to re-appreciate the evidence and as such no interference is called for. The petition, according to the respondent-State deserves to be dismissed.

5. I have heard the submissions of the learned counsel for the rival parties and meticulously perused the record.

6. To fathom the depth of the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties on the face of available factual and legal position, it is expedient to explore the facts of the case, in a nutshell, as under:-

“The petitioner was serving as Sub Engineer in Public Works Department and when he was posted in Sub Division Dindori, the construction of road via Rusa-Barnai-Medhakhar-Park