STATE OF ORISSA Vs. KSHETRABASI MOHANTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Special leave granted.

(2.) The respondent-employee was found guilty for temporary misappropriation after a departmental enquiry held against him. He was visited with the punishment of withholding of two future increments. However, subsequently it was found that he had reached the maximum of the scale and hence it was not possible to implement the punishment meted out to him. It was, therefore, proposed to substitute that punishment for which he was served with a show-cause notice. Thereafter, the order of punishment was reviewed by the governor and the substituted punishment imposed was that he should not be considered for promotion till the end of March 1980. Thereupon, the delinquent questioned the substituted punishment. He also filed another writ petition for being promoted on the ground that he was due for promotion since his juniors had been promoted. During the pendency of these writ petitions the orissa Administrative tribunal came to be constituted. Thereupon, both the writ petitions were transferred to the tribunal. They were heard together and by a common judgment dated 8/8/19911 the tribunal set aside the substituted punishment and directed that he should be promoted with effect from 23/5/1977. The State of orissa hasquestioned the correctness and validity of the tribunal's order in the present two appeals.

(3.) When these special leave petitions came up for admission before us on 23/3/1992 we passed an interim order directing the State to consider if the respondent would have been entitled to promotion with effect from 23/5/19777 as ordered by the tribunal even if no punishment was imposed after he was found guilty of misappropriation. In response to this query raised by the court the Under-Secretary to the government of orissa in the Agriculture Department has filed an affidavit and in paragraph 3 thereof he has stated as under: