IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Reserved on 30.07.2025 Pronounced on September 04, 2025 Vinay Kumar Arya ……..Petitioner Vs Sarva Haryana Gramin Bank and another …………Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ROHIT KAPOOR Present : Mr. Ganesh Chand Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner(through VC). Mr. Saurav Verma, Advocate, Mr., Anshul Pareek, Advocate, Ms. Preeti Grover, Advocate for the respondent-SHGB.

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ROHIT KAPOOR, J.

1. The present writ petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ in the nature of Certiorari for quashing of the impugned charge-sheet dated 29.04.2025 (Annexure P-1) and the letter dated 30.04.2025 (Annexure P-9) issued by respondent No.1, whereby it has been ordered that the petitioner will cease to be in service on the date of his superannuation i.e. 30.04.2025, but disciplinary proceedings will continue as if he was in service of the Bank until conclusion of the proceedings and his retiral benefits have also been withheld during the pendency of such proceedings, except his own contribution to the Provident Fund. Further prayer has been made for issuance of directions to the respondents to release all retiral benefits including the pension, gratuity and leave encashment, without reference to the impugned charge-sheet.

FACTUAL MATRIX:

2 The essential facts required to be noticed for the adjudication of the lis involved in the present petition are, that the petitioner was employed as Clerk-cum-Cashier at the Branch Office situated at Old Faridabad, of Gurgaon Gramin Bank, the predecessor-in-interest of the respondent-Bank on 06.06.1988. He continued on the said post till 30.04.2025. A civil suit bearing no. CS/108/2013 was filed before the Court of Civil Judge (Sr. Divn.), Faridabad on 7.5.2013 by one Ramphal, against Gurgaon Gramin Bank, the petitioner and one Surinder Sharma, as defendants No. 1 to 3 respectively. It was inter-alia alleged in the plaint, that the plaintiff therein had been approached by the petitioner, who was the Branch Manager of the defendant- Bank alongwith Surinder Sharma-defendant No.3, who allured him to make deposit of Rs.1 Crore to be deposited as a fixed deposit with the defendant- Bank. He issued an account payee cheque bearing No. 278670 dated 04.04.2008 for a sum of Rs.1 Crore and it was assured that the fixed deposit receipt will be issued shortly. However, upon contacting the Bank, the same was avoided on one pretext or the other and he was made to believe that he would get his money back after the maturity period of 3 years.

3. In the month of March 2011, the plaintiff visited the branch of the defendant-Bank at Old Faridabad for encashment of the fixed deposit, at which point he was told that there was no such deposit with the Bank, whereupon he went to his own Banker i.e. Syndicate Bank and it was confirmed that the amount of Rs.1 Crore had been in fact been transferred to the defendant-Bank Branch account on 04.04.2008 and on account of collusion between the petitioner, defendant No. 2 and Surinder Sharma- defendant No.3, the said amount was diverted into the saving account of the said defendant No. 3. The plaintiff then lodged FIR No. 110 dated 11.04.2011 at Police Station Old Faridabad against the then Branch Manager, namely, Vijay Pal Singh and previous Bank Manager, namely, Sh. D.K. Sharma and it is the case of the petitioner that during investigation it was found that the petitioner was not at fault. According to the investigation report (Annexure P-6), the allegations levelled by the complainant-Ramphal against Sh.Surinder Sharma and the employees of the Gurgaon Gramin Bank Ltd. were not confirmed and no truth was found in the same and cancellation report was filed in the aforementioned F.I.R.

4. The trial Court vide its judgment and decree dated 17.11.2017 allowed the suit and decree for recovery of Rs.1, Crore along with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of debiting of the amount from the accoun