Uttarakhand High Court
WPSS/1872/2023 on 6 October, 2023
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reports, orders
SL. or proceedings
Date COURT'S OR JUDGES'S ORDERS
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Registrar's order
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WPSS No. 1872 of 2023
Hon'ble Pankaj Purohit, J.
Mr. K.K. Tiwari, learned counsel for the
petitioner.
2. Mr. Atul Bahuguna, learned Standing Counsel
for the respondents/Food Corporation of India.
3. By means of this petition, the petitioner has
challenged memo of charge sheet dated 28.08.2023
(Annexure No.5 to the writ petition), by which the
petitioner was called upon to submit the
reply/explanation to the aforesaid impugned memo
dated 28.08.2023.
4. It is argued by learned counsel for the
petitioner that the petitioner was retired on
31.08.2023 from the post of Assistant Grade-I and
just before 3 days' prior to his retirement, the charge
memo was handed over to him. It is also submitted
by him that the allegations and misconduct for which
the charge memo was served upon him, relate back
to the year 2011, precisely on 10.09.2011, when he
was alleged to have made a Hoax call from the
government telephone against the higher officer, to
the Police Control Room.
5. It is further submitted by the learned counsel
for the petitioner that the misconduct was there in
knowledge of the respondents and deliberately just 3
days' prior to his retirement from the office, he was
issued the aforesaid charge sheet which is totally
illegal, arbitrary and has been deprecated by the
Hon'ble Apex Court in various cases.
6. A reference has been made by the learned
counsel for the petitioner of case law AIR 1990
Supreme Court 1308 reported in State of Madhya
Pradesh Vs. Bani Singh and another, wherein, Para
4 of the judgment, such a similar issue was cropped
up and the Hon'ble Apex Court had quashed such
inquiry for the reason of delayed initiation of inquiry
after retirement. Para 4 of the said judgment is
hereinunder:
"4. The appeal against the order dt. 16-12-1987 has
been filed on the ground that the Tribunal should
not have quashed the proceedings merely on the
ground of delay and laches and should have allowed
the enquiry to go on to decide the matter on merits.
We are unable to agree with this contention of the
learned counsel. The irregularities which were the
subject-matter of the enquiry is said to have taken
place between the years 1975-1977. It is not the
case of the department that they were not aware of
the said irregularities, if any, and came to know it
only in 1987. According to them even in April, 1977
there was doubt about the involvement of the officer
in the said irregularities and the investigations were
going on since then. If that is so, it is unreasonable
to think that they would have taken more than 12
years to initiate the disciplinary proceedings as
stated by the Tribunal. There is no satisfactory
explanation for the inordinate delay in issuing the
charge memo and we are also of the view that it will
be unfair to permit the departmental enquiry to be
proceeded with at this stage. In any case there are
no grounds to interfere with the Tribunal's orders
and accordingly we dismiss this appeal."
7. Very recently, the High Court of Rajasthan
relying upon the various judgments of Hon'ble
Supreme Court in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5731
of 1999, Ramanuj Sharma (deceased) through his
LRs Vs. State of Rajasthan, decided on 14.09.2023
wherein also, similar set of circumstances, the
delayed enquiry, which was initiated by issuance of
charge sheet one day prior to the date of the
retirement of the delinquent employee in respect of
his misconduct of 14 years back, was deprecated and
quashed.
8. Learned State Counsel prays for and is granted
six weeks' time for filing counter affidavit.
9. List on 19.12.2023.
10. In the meantime, the effect and operation of
impugned memo of charge sheet dated 28.08.2023
shall remain stayed. Since, the petitioner has retired
on 31.08.2023 and his gratuity and leave encashment
was not released, hence, it is expected from the
respondents to consider releasing the gratuity and
leaving encashment of petitioner.
(Pankaj Purohit, J.)
06.10.2023
PN
