G S RAO Vs. HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LIMITED BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) in this writ petition, almost a decade old by now, the petitioner is one g.s. rao formerly a middle-rung executive of the hindustan aeronautics limited (hereinafter referred to as 'the company') the first respondent herein, who found his services terminated by the company under an order of dismissal passed on the 16th august, 1979 vide annexure-w pursuant to an enquiry held against him by an enquiry authority comprising of a panel of two officers of the company in relation to a barrage of six charges alleging that he had committed the various misconduct referred to therein. The charges pertained to the conduct of the petitioner in organising and spearheading a movement of the officer members of the hindustan aeronautics officers'association, an entity registered under thetrade union's Act, to defy and raise against the management by resorting to strike, protestations, etc. All calculated to throw the management of the company into a disarray resulting in hampering the working of the company. Albeit the petitioner having denied the charges the enquiry authority held the same to be proved and on a report made by the authority to the disciplinary authority being the managing director of the company-respondent no. 4 herein passed the impugned order dismissing the petitioner from the services of the company. Hence, this writ petition challenging the order of dismissal seeking for its quashing and the consequential relief of being restored into service with All monetary benefits which petitioner has missed out in this interregnum.

(2.) the petition ha been keenly opposed by the management which has filed anelaborate statement of objections in which it has striven to meet the petitioner's case and to deny the same, not unnaturally the stand of the management seeks to uphold its action, desires sustaining of the impugned order of dismissal.

(3.) before I proceed further to delineate the legal controversies brought to the foreby" the two sides, it seems to me that I should as a prelude to venturing out on a consideration of the rival contentions and to state my views thereon, speak of the perturbance created by this decade old writ petition and the frustrating delay that has ensued in its disposal. While I am sure this is not the only case that had to suffer an intolerably longish period of delay in its consideration by the court for there are many more of its ilk in the archives of this court, I am bound to take note of a particular feature of this case in that the petitioner who was 47 years old on the date of this writ petition filed on the 22nd july, 1980, has now, during the pendency of the writ petition, grown older by 10 years, All spent in waiting to know what was in store for him at the end of the long sojourn. The point really to notice is that he will, I am told at the bar, be reaching the age of superannuation by the end of the year. This interregnum, from the presentation of the writ petition to its disposal has spawned a poignant circumstances in that the man who came to the court seeking justice hoping to get back the job from which he feels he had been arbitrarily turned out now finds that even if success did come to him at this large stage, although it may bring some monetary compensation it will not, however, bring to him the joy or pleasure of having lived a meaningful life usefully spent pursuing a meaningful occupation. It so happens the writ petition was actually heard and disposed off in 1984 by a learned single judge of this court who had also allowed the same and directed restoration of the petitioner into service with All backwages and other benefits but that order regrettably and unluckily for the petitioner was recalled a few days later and the matter set at drift again. Thereafter it has either meandered or loosely drifted in its quest for a hearing in the archives of this court for long years for no fault of its own, I do hope the order which I now propose to make would bring to an end a long drawn legal battle. As noted earlier I have ventured to make these observations which I would not have normally made except for the fact that I have myself felt not just a tinge but a lot of anxiety, considerable anguish at the thought that a person almost in the prime of manhood had during these long years of wailing grown old and had reached the age of superannuation.