POULOSE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first petitioner in O.P.No.852 of 1985 is the appellant in W.A.No. 27 of 1990. The sole petitioner in O.P.No.2791 of 1985 is the appellant in W.A.No. 934 of 1989. The two writ petitions were disposed of by a common judgment dated 31-5-1989 and both the writ petitions were dismissed. Aggrieved by the same, the present appeals are filed.

(2.) The facts necessary for decision of the controversy in these Writ Appeals are as follows. These appellants and some others were employees of the Forest Department and long before their retirement, disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against them. While the enquiry proceedings were pending before the Disciplinary Proceedings Tribunal under the Kerala Civil Services (Disciplinary Proceedings Tribunal) Rules, 1960, these persons retired. Subsequently they challenged the continuation of the disciplinary enquiries on the ground that they are not Government servants and that they are retired employees. They also claimed that the application filed for amendment of the charges is not permissible.

(3.) The main contention in these Writ Appeals, is that the amendment of the charges is possible only in cases of disciplinary proceedings against Government servants who are in service and such amendment is not permissible with regard to Government servants who have retired and against whom disciplinary proceedings are continuing. Reliance is placed upon R.15(3) of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules and R.8(3) of the Kerala Civil Services (Disciplinary Proceedings Tribunal) Rules. At this juncture, it would be pertinent to extract the Rules. R.15 of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules deals with procedure for imposing major penalties. We are mostly concerned with sub-rule (3), which reads as follows: