V N RAMA IYER Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is by the plaintiff a discharged Railway servant whose suit for damages for wrongful removal from the service, has been dismissed by the court below, and the only question is whether the plaintiff was removed from service by an authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed.

(2.) The plaintiff V. N. Rama Iyer entered service on 28.5.1921 as a temporary relieving clerk in the South Indian Railway Company. After probation for 3 months he was confirmed as a relieving clerk. He got his first appointment as a station Master on 13.3.1934 drawing Rs. 50 and was still in that cadre when the Government of India acquired the Railway as a going concern. That was on 1.4.1944. The plaintiff was subsequently promoted to Rs. 52 in the scale of Rs. 50-60 from 1.6.1946. On 4.6.1946 the plaintiff was transferred temporarily to the Ernakulam South Station, the post of the Station Master of which had been graded as Rs. 60-70 and he joined duty there on 18.4.1946. But soon thereafter he was asked to leave it and go to Lovedale, a hill station. The plaintiff was unwilling to leave Ernakulam and would not obey in spite of the insistent orders of the District Operating Superintendent (D.O.S.) He refused even to hand over charge to the relieving officer. So charges were framed against the plaintiff accusing him of grave misconduct and he was removed from service by Ext. AF order of the District Operating Superintendent dated 30.4.1947 with effect from 10.5.1947. The plaintiff attempted to get the order vacated in appeal before the Chief Operating Superintendent (C.O.P.S.) but failed, vide Ext. AJ order dated 7.8.1947, and he filed this unit on 30.5.1948 for declaration that the order of removal was void and ultra vires and for consequential reliefs.

(3.) Now, at the date of the order removing him from service, plaintiff may be taken to be a Government servant, who by virtue of S.240(2) of the Government of India Act, 1935, could not be removed by an authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed. This appears also to be the position under R.1705(c) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code, Volume I (1951 edition) which runs as follows: