U. DAS Vs. UNION OF INDIA THROUGH SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND THE DIRECTOR GENERAL, NATIONAL MUSEUM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the three Original Applications bearing OA Nos. 3312/2011, OA No. 54/2012 and OA No. 3843/2011 have been heard together as they involve common question of law and facts arising from the same transaction and, therefore, they are being disposed of by this common order. The facts of the case, briefly put, are that the applicants, while working in the National Museum on different posts and dealing with the Exhibition entitled Eternal India proposed to have been held in Brazil, were issued show cause notice dated 26.07.2006 in so far as one U. Das (applicant in OA No. 3312/2011) and John Emmanuel Dawson (applicant in OA No. 54/2012) are concerned and show cause dated 03.08.2006 to K.K. Deori (applicant in OA No. 3843/2011) alleging that during the year 2002 -2005 they, in collusion with each other, had committed gross misconduct, dereliction of duties and irregularities thereby caused financial loss to the Government by passing fake bills amounting to Rs. 55,18,690/ - in favour of M/s. Packwell & Company (Fine Art Handling Agent -FAHA) without scrutiny of the bills raised by the firm and caused heavy loss to the Government by misusing the allotted funds, not supervising the work properly and allowing them to make overpayment, procure the material at inflated rates and execute sub standard work. Though the applicants allege that the afore show cause notices had been issued after a lapse of four years of the incident, they submitted their respective replies rebutting all the charges. The applicants further submit that the respondents thereafter did not act on their replies for the next 5 years and they were lulled into believing that their replies had been accepted as there was no truth in the allegations. However, the chargesheet for major penalty dated 28.01.2011 was served upon the applicant in OA No. 3312/2011 (U. Das) under Rule 14 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 on the date of his retirement i.e. 31.01.2011 in violation of Rule 9(2) of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 whereas John Emmanuel Dawson (applicant in OA No. 54/2012) and K.K.S. Deori (applicant in OA No. 3843/2011) were issued with major penalty chargesheets on 30.03.2011 and 01.03.2011 respectively. It is the case of the applicant in OA No. 3312/2011 (U. Das) that since the allegations were very old, he requested for supply of additional documents on 05.02.2011 but the same were not provided to him within a reasonable time. Therefore, he was compelled to submit his reply to the Chargesheet on 05.03.2011 without waiting for the same. The other applicants in remaining two OAs also filed their respective replies to the Chargesheet issued to them. Having not considered their replies, the respondents did not consider them for financial upgradation under the MACP Scheme and in so far as U. Das (applicant in OA No. 3312/2011) is concerned, as he stood retired on 31.01.2011, his post retirement dues i.e. DCRG and leave encashment were also withheld. The Articles of charges against all the applicants are as under: -

(2.) AGGRIEVED , the applicants filed their respective OAs before this Tribunal on different dates and in all these OAs, the Tribunal was pleased to stay the departmental proceedings against the applicants. The applicants have sought common direction to be issued to the respondents to quash and set aside the Chargesheets issued to them and further to consider them for grant of financial upgradation under MACP Scheme with all consequential benefits.

(3.) THE applicants have relied upon the following judicial pronouncements: -