SHIVA SHANKAR MAMIDI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the Ld. counsels for the parties, Petition is taken up for hearing.

(2.) Stay of departmental enquiry during pendency of criminal trial is often sought by delinquent employees on the ground that conduct of departmental enquiry before criminal trial discloses his/her defence thereby causing prejudice in the criminal trial. This is yet another case where Petitioner seeks such stay. Petition arises out of challenge to the interim order dtd. 27/3/2023 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) thereby rejecting prayer for stay of departmental enquiry during pendency of Original Application No.122 of 2023. In his Original Application, Petitioner has sought the final relief of stay of departmental enquiry during pendency of criminal trial.

(3.) Petitioner is functioning as Data Processing Assistant in the Employees Provident Fund Organization. The employer has unearthed some fraudulent transactions in the matter of settlement of fictitious claims thereby causing huge financial loss to the corpus of the Fund. It suspects some of its officials and employees to be the perpetrators of such fraudulent activities. Therefore, an FIR came to be registered against Petitioner and others on 31/12/2021 for offences punishable under Sec. 420, 409, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code and sec. 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for investigating cases of fraudulent withdrawals from EPF corpus. In the FIR, it is alleged inter alia that Petitioner while functioning as Data Processing Assistant at the Regional Office, Kandivali-II during the years 2019-2021 enabled settlement of fraudulent claims for provident fund in respect of 20 establishments causing loss of Rs.21,68,88,663.00 to the EPF corpus. It is further alleged that the settlements were done by opening PF accounts in the names of fraudulent and bogus members. Petitioner came to be placed under suspension with effect from 25/8/2021. After completion of investigations, Central Bureau of Investigation has filed Chargesheet (Final Report) on 10/5/2022 before the CBI Special Court at Rouse Avenue, New Delhi.