MANAGEMENT OF THE NORTHERN RAILWAY CO OPERATIVE CREDIT SOCIETY LIMITED JODHPUR Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL RAJASTHAN JAIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "(i) To instigate and conspire to paralyse the working of the Society at the time of the impending Annual General Meeting on 28th April 1956 by collectively submitting sick certificates..

(2.) On 25th May 1956, Kanraj sent his reply to the charge-sheet. In that reply, he took the plea that there were no disciplinary rules framed and issued for the employees of the Society, and added that, if the rules were being enforced on the analogy of the Railway Rules, he would request the Secretary of the Society to let him know what offence he had committed and how that offence had been constituted. He further pleaded that the charges levelled against him were vague and were not specific. He then proceeded to deal with all the five charges, and in the case of four of them, viz., (i). (iii), (iv) and (v), the plea put forward was that in the absence of details he could not answer the charges properly, though he denied those charges. At the end, he made a request that, if an enquiry is held, he should be allowed to bring either a Railway or a trade Union official, specially shareholders who had interest in the Society's affairs and constituted the very structure of the Society in order to represent him. A Committee of Enquiry was appointed, consisting of Shri Deodutta Gaur as Chairman, and Bhailal and Vishwadeo Purohit as members to enquire into the charges against Kanraj. The information of the constitution of this Committee was conveyed to Kanraj by the letter, dated 28th June 1956, and he was also told that he would be allowed to be accompanied by any employee of the Society at the enquiry if he so desired, but not by any other person as requested by him. Kanraj, however, continued to insist that he must be permitted to be accompanied by a Railway employee or a Union official, particularly because he was the seniormost employee of the Society and he could not expect to get any assistance from any other junior employee. This correspondence went on, and his request was not acceded to. Ultimately, on the date fixed for enquiry, Kanraj refused to ground that he had not been allowed to be represented as desired by him.

(3.) The Committee then submitted its report on 4th August 1956. In the report, the Committee first considered the question whether it should proceed to record evidence of persons who had lodged complaints regarding the charges levelled against Kanraj, or whether it should submit its report and findings on the basis of the record available before the Committee. The report of the Committee mentions that it decided to submit its report and findings on the basis of the record before the Enquiry Committee, and that, thereafter, the evidence already available on record, which had been earlier considered by the Vice-Chairman before issue of the charge-sheet, was duly examined. The Committee further considered it inadvisable to comment on this material as it held it to be as good as before and recorded its view that the charges still stood proved. On receipt of this report, the Vice Chairman of the Society asked the Committee to give its independent opinion in the case as to whether Kanraj was guilty of the charges levelled or not. In reply to this, the Committee mentioned that the charge stood proved. In this subsequent report, the Committee added that before arriving, the decision, it had examined all evidence on record independently, and had also examined three to four witnesses verbally and had found that they corroborated the evidence already on record. It was stated that the witnesses examined verbally related to charges (i), (iii), (iv) and (v) [in the report (ii)) its an error for (iii) ].