UMASANKAR CHATTERJEE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this appeal the appellant, Umasankar Chatterjee, has challenged the propriety of the judgment of a learned single Judge of this Court whereby the learned judge discharge the Rule Nisi issued on the application of the appellant under Article 226 of the Constitution on the ground of want of territorial jurisdiction.

(2.) The appellant was appointed the Finance Manager of the Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation), a Government Company under the control of the Central Government and was posted at Namrup in Assam. At the relevant time, his scale of pay was Rs.1800/- to Rs.2250/-. On August 25, 1975, the appellant was transferred to Kobra in Madhya Pradesh, but before his transfer he was sent on tour from Namrup to Calcutta on August 15, 1975 for finalisation of the annual accounts with the Government auditors. He was, however, released from Calcutta on August 25, 1975 on account of business, and he joined the Kobra Division on September 4, 1975.

(3.) While the appellant was working in the Kobra Division, he was served with a charge sheet containing six Articles of charges by the Chairman and Managing Director of the Corporation under cover of his memo dated September 14, 1976. All the charges, except one, related to the T.A. Bills submitted by the appellant in respect of traveling and transportation costs incurred by him for himself and the members of his family in Calcutta before he joined the Kobra Division in Madhya Pradesh. It was inter alia alleged that in the T. A. Bills the appellant had made certain false claims of cost which he did not incur during his tour in Calcutta. The appellant was put under suspension and, after such suspension, he was permitted by the authority concerned to stay at his Calcutta residence and draw his subsistence allowance from the Calcutta office of the Corporation.