SURYA BIR SRIVASTAVA Vs. REGISTRAR, COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed for quashing of the order dated 14th August, 2007 Annexure No. 1 to the writ petition passed by the second respondent whereby an amount of Rs. 1,75000/- that was payable as gratuity to the petitioner has been withheld on account of a doubtful involvement of the petitioner in an incident of certain fraudulent payments through two fake pay orders of the respondent bank amounting to Rs. 1,18000/- said to have been negotiated by one Shri Ajay Singh under the forged signatures of the then cashier/clerk Shri Sunil Kumar Agarwal and Senior Assistant, Gyan Chandra Pal.

(2.) The contention raised by Shri Dixit is three fold. Firstly, that there was no element of any proof for finding the petitioner to be guilty of having misappropriated or participated in the misappropriation of the amount, the loss whereof has resulted in the deductions that have been made under the impugned order. The second ground raised is that withholding of gratuity by the respondent bank is not in conformity with section 4(6) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and is not even commensurate to the alleged loss, as stated to have been caused by the petitioner. The third submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the inquiry which was conducted, ultimately concluded in passing of a resolution by the bank for treating the said loss to be a non-profitable account, as the first information report which had been lodged in respect of the said transaction ended up in the submission of a final report. He submits that in the said proceedings nowhere was the petitioner found to be involved at all and the notice was given to the petitioner for the proposed deduction long after the retirement of the petitioner.

(3.) Shri Dixit therefore, submits that in the aforesaid background the action taken for having deducted the said amount is unjustified and the impugned order deserves to be quashed.