M K MISHRA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS rule is at the instance of the petitioner, a railway servant, employed as a Travelling Ticket examiner impeaching the validity of the alleged order of termination dated 30th March, 1983 made under memo No. P/sc- Comm. / SP-B/s/82-2 issued by the General Manager, South Eastern Railway as well as the charge-sheet No. DCS/con/vig. /6/79/mkm dated the 15th January, 1980 issued by the Divisional Commercial superintendent, Khurda and enquiry report submitted by the enquiry Officer, South Eastern Railway. It has been alleged that there has been a patent violation of the principles of natural justice by the Enquiry Officer, one J. N. Adak, in not giving the petitioner the reasonable opportunity of examining the prosecution witnesses in his presence and permitting him to cross examine those witnesses and also the enquiry officer having acted with a bias.

(2.) THE short fact of the case is that on 8th May, 1979 while the petitioner was on duty as a. Travelling Ticket Examiner in 141 Up Coromondal Express Ex-Howrah to Khurda he was in charge of two 3 Tier Sleeper Coaches Nos. 7124 and 7134 and he was hauled up by the vigilant personnel for not issuing tickets to five passengers who travelled in that train with the platform tickets in spite of his receiving from them certain sums of money. The EET passenger foil being ticket No. 697020 Local and 628614 (foreign) were seized by the vigilance people and he had to hand over the amended chart of the Coach No. 7124 and 7134 while he left the train at Khurda. On 14th May, 1979 the Divisional. Commercial Superintendent, Khurda Divn. the respondent No. 3 issued an order suspending the petitioner under proviso to Rule 1 of the railway Service (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 1968 suspending him from service with immediate effect on the ground that a disciplinary proceeding is contemplated against him. On 15th October, 1 978 this order of suspension was however revoked. On 15th January, ,1 980 a charge-sheet was issued by the respondent nos. 3 to the petitioner and this charge-sheet contained the following charges :

(3.) THIS charge sheet has been annexed as Annexure A to the petition. On 2 7th February, 1980 the petitioner sent a letter to the divisional Commercial Superintendent that on going through the records he could not find the following documents, that is, amended chart of coach no. 1 and coach no. 2 as amended by him. It has been stated that the amended chart which is presented in the file does not belong to him, but it belongs to the South Central Railways staff X-Wal-BZA. Secondly, EFT passenger foil taken from the local and foreign EFT book 697020 (local) 628614 (foreign) by the: Rly. Board Vigilance people. This letter has been annexed as Annexure D to the Writ petition.