M.S. PAUL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was posted as a Sub Divisional Engineer in Construction Sub Division No. 8 at Patiala in the year 1973. At that time a new Bus Stand was being constructed in Patiala. It is not disputed that the work of construction of the Bus Stand was under the Construction Sub Division No. 3, Patiala, of which one Shri A.N. Baldia was the Sub Divisional Engineer. For a short period of about two months, i.e. 19.11.1973 to 28.1.1974, the work of construction of the Bus Stand was transferred from Construction Sub Division No. 3 to Construction Sub Division No. 8, of which the petitioner was the Sub Divisional Engineer.

(2.) It has been averred in the petition that some time in the year 1974, the petitioner learnt that there was an allegation that poor quality steel pattern R.C.C. work had been done at the Bus Stand and it was in this connection that Shri Gurdial Singh, the concerned Sectional Officer, had been suspended. The petitioner apprehending that his name was being unnecessarily dragged into the controversy, he himself wrote a letter on 5th Sept., 1974 to the then Executive Engineer, Construction Sub Division No. 2 at Patiala, intimating that in fact the petitioner had been the Incharge of the work for about two months and during that period no steel pattern R.C.C. work had been done at the site. A copy of this letter has been appended as Annexure P-2 to the writ petition.

(3.) A charge-sheet dated 12th Aug., 1991, was served on the petitioner (copy Annexure P-3) attributing some negligence in getting the work of construction done by him regarding the construction of the Bus Stand at Patiala in the year 1974. The charge-sheet reads as under:-