Allahabad High Court
Raj Kumar Gautam vs State Of U.P. & Others on 14 May, 2012
Bench: Sudhir Agarwal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
AFR
Court No. - 2
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 41679 of 2009
Petitioner :- Raj Kumar Gautam
Respondent :- State Of U.P. & Others
Petitioner Counsel :- Vijay Gautam
Respondent Counsel :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J.
1. Writ petition has been restored to its original number vide order of date passed on recall application. As requested by learned counsel for the parties, the writ petition is taken up for hearing and is being disposed of finally.
2. This writ petition is directed against the punishment order dated 25.01.2009 and the appellate order dated 11.07.2009 whereby the punishment of withholding of integrity has been imposed by petitioner and his appeal thereagaisnt has been rejected.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the said punishment is without jurisdiction since under Rule 4 of U.P. Police officers of the Subordinate Ranks (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 1991 (hereinafter referred to as the "Rules, 1991") there is no such punishment like withholding of integrity and, therefore, imposition of said punishment is wholly without jurisdiction. He placed reliance on an Apex Court's decision in State Bank of India and others Vs. T.J. Paul, 1999(3) JT 385 and a recent decision in Vijay Singh Vs. State of U.P. and others, JT 2012(4) SC 105 wherein the Apex Court has said that punishment not prescribed in Rules cannot be imposed upon a delinquent employee as a result of departmental inquiry. The Court in para 11 of the judgement in Vijay Singh (supra) said:
"11. The issue involved herein is required to be examined from another angle also. Holding departmental proceedings and recording a finding of guilt against any delinquent and imposing the punishment for the same is a quasi-judicial function and not administrative one. (Vide: Bachhittar Singh v. State of Punjab & Anr., AIR 1963 SC 395; Union of India v. H.C. Goel, AIR 1964 SC 364; Mohd. Yunus Khan v. State of U.P. & Ors., (2010) 10 SCC 539; and Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Coal India Ltd. & Ors. v. Ananta Saha & Ors., (2011) 5 SCC 142).
Imposing the punishment for a proved delinquency is regulated and controlled by the statutory rules. Therefore, while performing the quasi-judicial functions, the authority is not permitted to ignore the statutory rules under which punishment is to be imposed. The disciplinary authority is bound to give strict adherence to the said rules.
Thus, the order of punishment being outside the purview of the statutory rules is a nullity and cannot be enforced against the appellant."
4. Learned Standing Counsel could not dispute that withholding of integrity is not one of the punishment provided in Rules, 1991 and, therefore, could not defend the impugned orders.
5. In view of above, the writ petition is allowed. The impugned orders dated 25.01.2009 and 11.07.2009 are hereby quashed. However, this order shall not preclude the disciplinary authority from passing any fresh order in accordance with law after giving due opportunity of hearing to all concerned parties.
Order Date :- 14.5.2012
AK
Civil Misc. Recall Application No. 98025 of 2012
In
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 41679 of 2009
Petitioner :- Raj Kumar Gautam
Respondent :- State Of U.P. & Others
Petitioner Counsel :- Vijay Gautam
Respondent Counsel :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J.
1. Heard Sri Vijay Gautam, learned counsel for the applicant and learned Standing Counsel for the respondents.
2. This is an application for recall of my order dated 22.04.2011 whereby this writ petition has been decided alongwith bunch of writ petitions led by Writ Petition No. 11219 of 2009. Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that it was wrongly connected with aforesaid bunch by this Court's order dated 13.08.2009 but the said order was subsequently corrected on 19.02.2010 by the Court but this correction appears to have been omitted and this writ petition was listed alongwith that bunch led by Writ Petition No. 11219 of 2009 and was decided though it is a different matter and counsel for the applicant by mistake could not point out this fact on that day.
3. Having perused the record of both the writ petitions as also the various orders passed by this Court, it is quite evident that this matter is different than the bunch of writ petitions lead by Writ Petition No. 11219 of 2009.
4. The application is allowed. The order dated 22.04.2011, so far as this writ petition is concerned, is recalled and the writ petition is restored to its original number.
Order Date :- 14.5.2012
AK
