RAJNEESH KUMAR SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in this petition is to the punishment imposed by the appellate authority by order dtd. 25/01/2013 (Annexure P/3) and subsequent appellate authority order dtd. 16/05/2013 (Annexure P/2) and order dtd. 06/11/2013 (Annexure P/1) and by such punishment withholding of one increment of pay for a period of one year which will have the effect in postponing his future increment of pay by Sr. Commandant, CISF, ASG NSCBIA, Kolkata.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner was working in CISF and was posted in CISF SV Airport Raipur. The petitioner Rajneesh Kumar Singh was deployed for B shift duty from 13.00 hrs to 21 hrs. on 12/10/2012 at X-BIS in SHA as a screener. The allegation was that he failed to detect and remove knife of Size 4 inches blade with 3.5 inches handle kept in the baggage of a passenger namely H.S. Mishra, who was traveling by the Jet Airways Flight No.S-2-4222 from Raipur to Delhi knowing fully well that it was a prohibited item. During the enquiry according to the respondent despite the clear evidence, the misconduct was held to be not proved. Thereafter, the disciplinary authority disagree with such finding of enquiry officer sent a note of disagreement on 24/12/2012 by Annexure P/7 and recorded a finding that the knife was seized from the passenger on board by crew member and deposited with the Jet Airways security at New Delhi Airport. An image of a bag containing a knife was found in the stored image of the X-BIS during the login ID of the charged official i.e. the petitioner. Consequently, the disagreement was arrived at.

(3.) The petitioner was given opportunity to prefer the response against the report of the Enquiry Officer. Though the reply was given but it was not satisfactory, consequently the punishment of withholding of one increment of pay for a period of one year which will have the effect in postponing his future increment of pay was ordered.