BABU RAM VERMA Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has filed the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, challenging an order passed by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh on 4th December, 1970, dispensing with the petitioner's services, with immediate effect, in exercise of the powers under Note 1 to Article 465 of the Civil Service Regulations.

(2.) THE petitioner was appointed in the Subordinate Agriculture Service, Group V, in The Agriculture Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh, on 13th October, 1937. In 1943 he was appointed as an Assistant Marketing Inspector in the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh. In that very year, the petitioner was promoted as a Marketing Inspector. In 1946, the petitioner was appointed as a Senior Marketing Inspector. In December, 1958, he was promoted to the Gazetted post of Assistant Regional Food Controller. Later on, in December, 1962, he was further promoted to the post of Deputy Regional Marketing Officer, Lucknow, and since then he served the State Government on that post at various places. In December, 1970, the petitioner had gone on five days' leave, and on his return, he found that an order of compulsory retirement had been passed against him, dispensing with his services with immediate effect. The petitioner did not get a copy of the order. He could receive a copy of the order only after he had an interview with the Secretary of the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the State of 'uttar Pradesh. The impugned order passed by the Governor on 4th December, 1970, runs as follows:-- UTTAR PRADESH SHASAN FOOD AND CIVIL SUPPLIES (C-I) DEPARTMENT No. M-5761/xxix-C. T. M. 193/70 Dated: Lucknow: December 4, 1970 ORDER In exercise of the powers under Note I to Article 465 of the C. S. Rs. the Governor, on being satisfied that it is in public interest to dispense with the services of Sri Babu Ram Verma, Deputy Regional Marketing Officer, is pleased to direct that Sri Verma be and is hereby retired from service with immediate effect. Sd. Mahmood Butt Commissioner and Secretary. The petitioner has challenged the aforesaid order on three grounds. Firstly, it was contended that the order was passed mala fide. Secondly, it was urged that the order was arbitrary, there being no material, on the basis of which it could reasonably be held that it was in public interest to retire the petitioner compulsorily. The third and the last submission was that the impugned order casts a stigma on the petitioner, and since no opportunity, as required under Article 311 (2) of the Constitution, was given to him, the order was void.

(3.) AS regards mala fides, averments have been made only in paragraphs 28 and 29 of the petition, according to which the petitioner had reasons to believe that the impugned order had been passed at the instance of Sri B. N. Tewari, the Regional Food Controller, the immediate boss of the petitioner, who was interested in one Sri R. C. Misra, Assistant Regional Food Controller, Bareilly. It was further alleged that Sri Tewari wanted to provide Sri Misra the superior post of Deputy Regional Marketing Officer, and it was with that end in view that the petitioner was made a scapegoat, and further that, after the petitioner's compulsory retirement, Sri Misra was promoted as Deputy Regional Marketing Officer. In our opinion, allegations of mala fide made by the petitioner are vague and general. The order was passed by the Governor, which was issued under the signature of the Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies Department. The petitioner has not placed any material before us to show that the State Government passed the orders on extraneous considerations, and that the opinion, formed by the Governor, that it was in public interest to compulsorily retire the petitioner, was not bona fide, In the absence of any material on record, we fail to see how Mr. B. N. Tewari could have influenced the Governor's decision. The petitioner's contention that the order has been passed mala fide must, therefore, fail.