L ANAND Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer in the writ petition is to quash the order of the third respondent dated 17.2.2005 which was confirmed in appeal by the second respondent and communicated by the third respondent in letter dated 20.7.2006 and the order passed by the first respondent in review petition, which was communicated by the respondent by letter dated 10.11.2006 and direct the respondents to reimburse the reduced pay and refix the petitioner's scale of pay and confer all monetary and consequential benefits including promotion on par with his juniors and disburse the arrears of salary.

(2.) The facts in nutshell for disposal of this writ petition are as follows:

(3.) The third respondent filed counter affidavit stating that the petitioner, while working as General Manager in the erstwhile Annai Sathya Transport Corporation, had remitted the amount to satisfy the award amount without following the instructions of the Government. Petitioner being a member of the sub-Committee, should have followed the instructions of the Government and as per the instructions issued by the Government in letter dated 5.7.2002 prior approval of the Finance Committee/Board should have been obtained for making payment. As the petitioner had not obtained prior approval, the petitioner was issued with charge memo and after conducting enquiry, punishment of reduction in basic pay for one year was imposed, which was also confirmed in appeal. The review petition having been filed after the prescribed time limit, the same was rejected as time barred. There is no procedural violation in passing the order of punishment. Petitioner having violated the procedures is not entitled to challenge the order of punishment.