RAJBIR SINGH Vs. D.T.C.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner workman has preferred the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to assail the order dated 17.10.2001, as well as the award dated 05.09.2003 passed by the Labour Court-VII in I.D. No.956/96. By the first order dated 17.10.2001, the Labour Court decided the preliminary issue with regard to the legality and validity of the domestic inquiry conducted by the respondent, in favour of the respondent, and by the subsequent award dated 05.09.2003 the reference made by the Appropriate Government on 15.11.1996 with regard to the removal of the petitioner from service was answered in favour of the respondent by holding that the punishment of removal from service was not disproportionate to the misconduct proved against the petitioner.

(2.) A departmental inquiry followed since the petitioner denied the charges against him. The Inquiry Officer made his report, finding the petitioner guilty of all the charges leveled against him. The inquiry proceedings recorded that letters were sent to the passenger on three occasions on 17.07.1992, 24.07.1992 & 31.07.1992, but the passenger did not appear before the Inquiry Officer. The petitioner was granted opportunity to bring his own witnesses in defence. The petitioner, however, did not produce any witness apart from himself. He gave his final statement on 07.08.1992. In response to the show-cause notice proposing to remove him from service, the petitioner sent a communication on 20.08.1992 seeking certain information from the respondent. On the basis of the inquiry report, the respondent passed the order of removal of the petitioner from service.

(3.) The Labour Court by the impugned order dated 17.10.2001 held that the inquiry had been properly conducted in accordance with the principles of natural justice. The submission of the petitioner - that the passenger had not been produced in the inquiry proceedings, was rejected, since three attempts appear to have been made to summon the passenger, and it was not necessary to produce the passenger in these circumstances - as held by the Supreme Court in State of Haryana & Another Vs. Rattan Singh, 1982 1 LLJ 46.