UNION OF INDIA Vs. HITENDER KUMAR SONI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As Appellants the Union of India and its concerned officials are aggrieved by the judgment and order under appeal dated 11.12.2008 passed by a Division Bench of High Court of Himachal Pradesh in Civil Writ Petition No. 41 of 2001 whereby the High Court allowed the Writ Petition preferred by the sole Respondent and set aside the impugned order of the Central Administrative Tribunal dated 15.5.2000. The High Court held the Respondent entitled for reinstatement in service to the post of "Investigator". The Government was directed to decide the admissibility and entitlement of leave, arrears of pay and allowances and other service benefits of Respondent upon his reinstatement after affording full opportunity to the Respondent, of hearing as well as leading evidence.

(2.) Before adverting to the facts it is relevant to notice at the outset that the High Court, inspite of resignation of the Respondent dated 07.10.1997 having been accepted by the Competent Authority by order dated 16.6.1998 held that the resignation could not have come into effect because as per Clause (4) of Office Memorandum dated 11.2.1988 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Respondent was also required to be relieved of his duties which was not done by the Appellants.

(3.) The question falling for determination in this appeal is whether relevant Clause (4) of the Office Memorandum dated 11.2.1988 takes away the power of the Government to effectively bring to an end the service of an employee by accepting his resignation unless the Government, besides accepting the resignation also proceeds to relieve the employee. In the judgment under appeal, the relevant clauses, i.e., Clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been extracted in paragraph 10(iii) and those clauses are reproduced hereinbelow for the sake of clarity and convenience: