BALAJI POKALWAR Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) During the year 2003-2005, the petitioner worked as Junior Engineer at Taluk Panchayat, Bidar. On 18/11/2008 one Narayanarao lodged complaint as per Annexure-A1 against the petitioner and seven others before the Lokayukta/Upa- lokayukta of Karnataka under Rule 4(1) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Rules, 1985 alleging that during that period the petitioner and others have diverted/misappropriated/ mis-utilized the Government Funds earmarked for water drainage/constructions works and amounts recovered as taxes.

(2.) Based on such complaint, Upa-lokayukta submitted report Annexure-A2 dtd. 23/3/2018 purportedly under Sec. 12(3) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 ('the Act' for short) opining that prima-facie the petitioner and delinquent Nos.1 to 7 have committed financial mismanagement amounting to misconduct. Upa-lokayukta also recommended to initiate disciplinary enquiry against the petitioner and other delinquents and to entrust enquiry to Lokayukta under Rule 14A of the Karnataka Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1957 ('the Rules' for short).

(3.) Based on such report, respondent No.1 by order Annexure-A3 dtd. 25/10/2018 acting under Rule 14 of the Rules entrusted the matter to Upa-lokayukta for holding enquiry against the petitioner and others. On such entrustment, the matter was referred to respondent No.3 the Additional Registrar of Enquiries-8. On such entrustment, respondent No.3 issued articles of charges as per Annexure-A4 on 28/12/2018 to the petitioner and three others. In the said articles of charge, the petitioner is shown as Delinquent Government Official No.1. One Thanjiwadikar, Junior Engineer, Devanand Deshmukh, Junior Engineer, V.Nagaraj of Taluk Panchayat are shown as delinquent Nos.2 to 4. The charge against the petitioner is that he received Rs.3,18,000.00 as advance for execution of SGRY Project in the year 2005-06 and submitted vouchers only for Rs.2,16,755.00 and he has not accounted for the balance amount of Rs.1,01,245.00, thereby he has misappropriated the same.