SANTOSH KUMAR PATNAYAK Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition praying for the following reliefs:-

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that on 28/06/1984 the petitioner joined his service on the post of Patwari at Gharghoda, District Raigarh. In the year 1990 in month of June, when he was working on the same post at village Terum District Raigarh (C.G), one Fakiro made a written complaint against the petitioner before the Superintendent of Police, on the basis of which the offence was registered and the petitioner was prosecuted under Ss. 7 and 13 (1) (d) with Sec. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998 whereby the Petitioner was convicted by the learned Special Judge, Raipur under the aforesaid offences on 24/11/1998. On the basis of conviction, the Petitioner was removed from his service on 11/01/1999. Being aggrieved by the judgment passed by the trial court, the petitioner preferred an appeal before the High Court, which was allowed and the Petitioner was acquitted vide order dtd. 23/08/2013 from all the charges as levelled against him. After acquittal from the said charges, the petitioner moved an application for his reinstatement in his service, the same was considered and the petitioner was taken in service, but, vide order dtd. 06/05/2014, the period for which the petitioner was out of service has been wrongly decided as "NO WORK NO PAY", against which the petitioner preferred writ petition bearing W.P.S No.2548/2018 before this Court. The aforesaid writ petition was allowed by this Court vide order dtd. 23/03/2018 and the aforesaid order was quashed and the matter was remitted back to the respondent no.3 to pass a reasoned order after granting opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. The respondent no 3 did not provide any opportunity to the petitioner and vide the impugned order dtd. 19/06/2018 simply repeated the earlier order without considering the directions issued by this Court, thereafter the petitioner preferred contempt petition bearing Cont Case (C) No.974/2018, wherein this Court vide order dtd. 11/09/2018 granted liberty to the petitioner to challenge the second order passed by the respondent authorities afresh. Hence the present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the order of the respondent authorities is unsustainable in law. The conviction of the petitioner by the learned Special judge, Raipur was contrary to law and facts of the case, against which the appeal preferred by the petitioner before the High Court has been allowed and the Petitioner has been honorably acquitted from the aforesaid charges and therefore, the conviction and sentence passed by the learned special judge, Raipur was not just and proper and only on the ground of conviction, the petitioner was terminated from his service, for which the Petitioner was not responsible and during the period from 11/01/1999 to 23/8/2012, the petitioner is entitled for full back wages as he was in service. The criminal case was pending before the Learned Special Judge, Raipur from 1992 to 24/11/1998 where the petitioner was facing trail and there was no delay in trial on the part of the petitioner and convicted in the year 1998, whereas his appeal was pending before the High Court and it was decided in the year 2013 i.e. after 15 years from the year of filing of the Appeal as such there is also no delay on the part of the Petitioner and therefore, the petitioner is entitled for full back wages for the aforesaid period. Therefore, the writ petition may kindly be allowed and the petitioner be paid full back wages for the aforesaid period. Reliance has been placed on the judgment rendered by this Court in the matter of Shankar Lal Soni (died) through LRs vs The State of Chhattisgarh and others, passed in WPS No.994/2010, decided on 9/7/2021.