L. JAYARAMAN Vs. THE STATE OF TAMILNADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, who was working as an Assistant in the District Employment Office at Cuddalore, was charge sheeted along with District Employment Officer and Junior Employment Officer, Tiruvannamalai. Since the misconduct committed by all the three of them were in relation to the same incident, a common enquiry was conducted in terms of Rule 9(A) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules by the order of the State Government in G.O.(D) No. 310 Labour and Employment Department dated 13.04.2006. The charge against the petitioner was that while typing sponsorship list, as against the name of one G.Jothilakshmi, while copying from the index card, the petitioner instead of indicating that she belong to Backward community as her caste was Vaniyar, typed it as 'vanniyar' Most Backward Community. His explanation was that he has read the word as 'vanniyar' instead of 'vaniyar'. He was misled because he was given a dummy card for typing. Charges were framed under Rule 17(b) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (D & A) Rules, followed by an enquiry. Ultimately, the petitioner was given punishment of stoppage of increment for a period of three years without cumulative effect by the order of the State Government in G.O(D)No.766 Labour and Employment department, dated 25.10.2007.

(2.) IT also transpires the Junior Employment Officer V. Ramanathan and the District Employment Officer P.Ravindran were also imposed with penalty in a similar manner. However, the petitioner alone has come forward with the present writ petition.

(3.) WITH reference to the mistake found on account of dummy card being given, in paragraph 14 of the counter, it was stated that the petitioner was given original index card pertaining to G.Jothilakshmi which was available on 27.02.2000 and therefore, there was no necessity to grant any dummy card for typing. In paragraph 14 of the counter, it was averred as follows: -