V.VARGHESE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD learned counsel for petitioner as well as learned Assistant Solicitor General of India.

(2.) IT is not in dispute that the present petitioner joined postal service in 1972; but unfortunately he was suspended from service on 18/03/1980 on the ground of criminal case pending against him. Apparently the criminal case was pertaining to missing of a postal article. It is also not in dispute that he was found guilty and was sentenced to undergo imprisonment by judgment dated 11/06/1985 in C.C.No.63/1985. During pendency of the investigation, he was suspended from service on 18/03/1980. Departmental enquiry came to be initiated for unauthorised absence prior to his suspension that is between 02/03/1979 to 14/03/1980. Ultimately, departmental proceedings resulted in compulsory retirement of the petitioner on 27/7/1981.

(3.) IN the normal course, if he were to continue service, he would have attained the age of superannuation on 31/01/2011. In the present O.A, he seeks for immediate reinstatement in service with all consequential benefits that would have accrued to him if he was not compulsorily retired on 27/07/1981. When he was compulsorily retired on 27/07/1981 and his appeal and review came to be rejected, he approached in earlier O.A only for retiral benefits and pension; but he never sought for setting aside compulsory retirement. In that view of the matter, merely a liberty being reserved in his favour by the Apex Court to seek appropriate relief before the appropriate authority, will not give life to a dead cause of action almost 12 years later. It does not mean that he can ask for reinstatement with consequential benefits.