MANOJ KUMAR Vs. UTTARAKHAND TRANSPORT CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. Tapan Singh, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. Ashish Joshi, learned counsel for the respondent-Corporation.

(2.) This appeal is preferred against the order passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (SS) No.2038 of 2018 dtd. 12/2/2019.

(3.) Facts, to the limited extent necessary, are that the appellant was appointed as a Conductor, by the respondent-Corporation, on a contract basis through an outsourcing agency on 27/1/2012, and was posted at Kashipur Depot, Udham Singh Nagar district. While he was travelling enroute from Delhi to Ramnagar on 1/4/2018, he issued a ticket to a passenger, from Anand Vihar, Delhi to Kashipur for Rs.255.00, through an electronic biometric machine. On a complaint from a passenger, the day after the journey, that the petitioner had failed to return Rs.45.00 despite having so endorsed on the ticket issued to him, the depot administration, on verification of the facts, found that the ticket, which the passenger held, was not a passenger ticket but a record ticket (which is a copy of the passenger ticket recorded in the biometric machine for the purposes of the record of the concerned depot). The appellant's services were, therefore, dispensed with questioning which he filed the present Writ Petition raising several grounds, including that no inquiry was held to establish the charges; his action, in issuing a record ticket to the passenger, was bonafide since the print out of the original ticket was smeared and unclear; such an act could not be treated as an act of misconduct; and in terms of the communication addressed by the Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand to the Managing Director of the Corporation, vide proceedings dtd. 12/1/2017, employees involved in irregularities of below Rs.250.00, and those who are absolved in the inquiry, are entitled to be considered for reappointment.