IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP-2325-2025 Date of Decision: 27.02.2025 Subhash Chand ......Petitioner(s)

Versus State of Haryana and others .....Respondent(s)

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JAGMOHAN BANSAL Present: Mr. Manish Soni, Advocate, Mrs. Priyanka Soni, Advocate, Ms. Tanya Mittal, Advocate, and Mr. Gurdeep Grewal, Advocate, for the petitioner.

Mr. Raman Sharma, Addl. A.G., Haryana.

JAGMOHAN BANSAL, J. (Oral)

1. The petitioner through instant petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India is seeking setting aside of order dated 29.11.2024 (Annexure P-6) whereby he was dismissed from service and order dated

08.01.2025 (Annexure P-8) whereby Appellate Authority dismissed his appeal.

2. The petitioner joined Haryana Police as Constable on 08.10.1999. He was promoted to the rank of Head Constable in October' 2011 and thereafter Assistant Sub Inspector on 20.10.2021. He remained posted at Police Station, New Colony, Gurugram as Moharrir Head Constable (MHC) from 03.02.2021 to 21.12.2021.

3. The respondent initiated disciplinary proceedings against him alleging that he was responsible for preparing verification report in respect of passport of Neeraj S/o Mahesh Dutt, R/o village Faridpur, District Faridabad who was accused in FIR No.141/2024 registered under Sections 419, 420, 467, 471 and 120B IPC at Police Station New Colony, Gurugram. The Investigating Officer conducted inquiry and found the petitioner guilty for not keeping the verification report of aforesaid passport. He was also held guilty for not supervising the passport verification. It is apt to notice that verification report was prepared by a Constable. The Disciplinary Authority after following the procedure prescribed under Punjab Police Rules, 1934 (as applicable in the State of Haryana) (in short 'PPR') issued show cause notice proposing major penalty. In the show cause notice, there was proposal for major penalty and Disciplinary Authority imposed punishment of dismissal from service. The petitioner preferred CWP-32922-2024 before this Court which was dismissed with liberty to assail order of Appellate Authority. It is apt to notice that petitioner preferred appeal before Appellate Authority which was dismissed vide impugned order dated 08.01.2025.

4. Mr. Manish Soni, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner was found careless in the inquiry, however, Disciplinary Authority formed an opinion that he is guilty of misconduct and subjected him to extreme major penalty i.e. dismissal from service. The petitioner on the date of passing impugned order was having 25 years service to his credit. He was never implicated in any other offence. He has unblemished record. The respondent has imposed penalty ignoring the mandate of Rule 16.2 of PPR. The act of petitioner did not amount to gravest misconduct or incorrigible act. The petitioner is going to retire in October' 2025.

5. Per contra, Mr. Raman Sharma, Addl. A.G., Haryana submits that petitioner neither maintained record of verification of passport in question nor supervised verification. He being MHC was bound to maintain record of verification as well as supervise verification of passport. On account of lapse on his part, report was prepared in favour of Neeraj entailing issuance of passport by Passport Authority.

6. On the asking of Court, Mr. Sharma expressed his inability to controvert the fact that Inquiry Officer had found petitioner careless and his act cannot be called as gravest misconduct.

7. For the sake of convenience, findings recorded by Inquiry Officer and Disciplinary Authority are reproduced as below:-

Inquiry Officer “From the investigation so far, it has come to light that the delinquent E/ASI Subhash No.1536/Gurugram and delinquent constable Surendra No. 1648/Gurugram did the above work and that the delinquents were found to have done the above work carelessly by not showing seriousness towards their respective government work. Due to this neglige