B P JOSHI Vs. GUJARAT ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A short, but substantial question which has surfaced in this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution revolves round, as to whether the petitioner was terminated from his employment with respondent Gujarat Electricity Board without affording him an opportunity of hearing and in violation of principles of natural justice?

(2.) With a view to appreciating the short question which calls for adjudication, a skeleton projection of the facts giving rise to this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, may be highlighted.

(3.) The petitioner came to be appointed as a Junior Clerk, in Vidyut Board Vidyalaya, at Baroda, in the year 1986. He came to be served with a show cause notice dated 3.5.1990, wherein it has been alleged that the behaviour of the petitioner was rude and insulting with the colleagues, superiors and the parents of the students and that the petitioner has not improved his behaviour inspite of oral and written warning in that regard. It is in the context of those allegations that the respondent Board Authority desired to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner and a prelude to that, served the petitioner with a show cause notice. It will be also necessary to mention that in the said show cause notice other allegations were made against the petitioner, namely (i) that he is irregular in attending the school; (ii) that he is doing over-writing in the muster-roll; (iii) that the work assigned to the petitioner was not completed; and (iv) that though the petitioner was not supposed to have any monetary transaction, he had accepted amount of fees from the parents and that the same amount was deposited lately in the Bank account of the school.