SHANTIMOY CHATTERJEE Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The attempt on the part of the petitioner to have his service tenure extended has resulted in initiation of disciplinary proceeding against him for making wrong statement as regards his date of birth at the time of entering into service in Calcutta Tramways Cooperative Credit Society Limited. The authority has passed an order of stoppage of two increments. In this writ petition, under challenge is the legality of the said proceeding as also the order of the authorities, by which punishment has been imposed. The petitioner had joined the society in the year 1968 as a clerk, disclosing his age to be 20 years. Subsequently he was promoted to the post of Grade-I Assistant. In his job application, he had indicated that he had passed Higher Secondary Examination in technical science group in the year 1967, he was pursuing B.Sc course. Case of the petitioner is that during the month of December, 1996, he came to learn that his date of birth was wrongly recorded and he sought for correction of his recorded date of birth. In support of his plea, he has annexed to the writ petition as "P2", a copy of his admit card for Higher Secondary Examination. In this document, his date of birth is recorded as 5th January, 1951.

(2.) It is also his case that when he has made his plea for such correction, majority members of the managing committee of the society had accepted his request by making endorsement on his application itself, which was lying with the authorities. A copy of this application has been made Annexure P 12 to the writ petition.

(3.) On or about 21st April, 2004, the charge sheet was issued against the petitioner on the ground of suppression of true age at the time of his appointment, as was reflected in his Higher Secondary examination admit card. Though the factual basis of the charges against him remained the same, he was charged on two counts. The first charge was of willful suppression of material fact for the purpose of gaining employment "through gross misconduct" and the second charge was of accepting employment in an illegal manner, which as per the charge-sheet, constituted cheating. He was also placed under suspension from that date itself, but the order of suspension was subsequently lifted. The reply of the petitioner to the charge-sheet was that at the time he joined his service, he was not asked to produce any certificate in support of his age or date of birth and by mistake he had disclosed his age to be 20 years at the time of making his application. Enquiry was held thereafter in which the petitioner participated. The disciplinary authority was satisfied of the guilt of the petitioner in respect of the charges brought against him.