R G ULAVARANA Vs. GUJARAT MARITIME BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Letters Patent Appeal has been filed challenging the order dated 06.09.2011 passed by the learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No.7062/2011.

(2.) WE have heard the learned counsel for the respective parties. The appellant herein joined the services of the respondent-Board on 28.03.1985 on the post of 'Sarang'. Subsequently, in the year 1989, the appellant was promoted to the post of 'Master'. Somewhere in the year 2000, charge sheet came to be issued upon the appellant on the ground of some alleged misconduct and the departmental inquiry was initiated against him. Ultimately, the disciplinary authority imposed a punishment of compulsory retirement on the appellant. The said penalty was substituted by the appellate authority by imposing the punishment of reduction to lower post and the stage i.e. from the pay-scale of Rs.4,500- 7,000/- on the post of 'Master' to the pay-scale of Rs.4,000-6,000/- on the post of 'Sarang'. The learned Single Judge held that the above substitution of penalty by the appellate authority does not amount to reversion as defined in Rule 15 of the Gujarat Civil Services (Pay) Rules, 2002. The learned Single Judge observed that the appellant was not reverted but the penalty of compulsory retirement was substituted by imposing punishment of reduction to the lower stage. The respondent authority passed the impugned order of recovery since the officer concerned had wrongfully fixed the pay-scale of the appellant at Rs.4,800/- by passing the impugned order. The respondent authority corrected the administrative mistake which was committed by one of its officers. In this connection it would be relevant to refer to a recent decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Syed Abdul Qadir and others v. State of Bihar and others, (2009) 3 S.C.C. 475, wherein in para 58, it has observed as under :-