SUDHAKAR SHANKAR CHAPKE Vs. MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition, the petitioner has put to challenge the order dated 8/8/2008 passed by the respondent no.2 Executive Director and Competent Officer removing the petitioner from service with effect from 9/2/2008 and treating the suspension period as a part of the punishment.

(2.) The petitioner was appointed in the year 1982 as a Junior Engineer in the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. He was promoted in the year 2003 as an Executive Engineer. During the course of his service, on 8/2/2008, on a complaint lodged by one Keshav Shende, Contractor from Pune, the Anti Corruption Bureau caught the petitioner red handed with a bribe amount of Rs.50,000/-, which he had asked for clearing the pending bills of Keshav Shende to the tune of Rs.15 Rs.17 lakhs. On 9/2/2008 the petitioner was put under suspension. Thereafter the respondent no.2 issued him a charge-sheet by way of summary proceedings, inter alia, levelling the charge of dishonesty. He filed reply to the charge-sheet and thereafter on 30/6/2008 he was issued a show cause notice by the respondent no.2 as to why he should not be removed from service. He submitted his reply on 5/7/2008 to the said show cause notice and thereafter on 8/8/2008 he was removed from service by the impugned order.

(3.) In support of the writ petition, Shri Khapre, the learned Counsel for the petitioner, made the following submissions :