MANJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will dispose of the following writ petitions as common questions of law and fact are involved therein and can be disposed of by a common order: -

(2.) The facts are taken from CWP No.26911 of 2013 for the sake of convenience in decision-making. All four cases arise out of a common incident involving a jailbreak by some undertrials from Central Jail, Gurdaspur, Punjab.

(3.) Briefly stated, the facts are that the present petitioner and the three petitioners in the connected writs were posted at the material time on the staff strength of Central Jail, Gurdaspur. During the period, the petitioner was posted as a Head Warder working under the control and supervision of the Superintendent, Central Jail, Gurdaspur-the 5th respondent. The four petitioners were on internal patrolling duty and Tower Sentry duty in the jail premises in October, 2012 when three undertrials escaped from jail on the intervening night of 3rd /4th October, 2012 between 1:45 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. In the hue and cry raised, the police swung into action and succeeded in rearresting the three undertrials from precincts in Ludhiana on the following day and were returned to jail to face trial for which they were kept in judicial custody. Head Warder Jasbir Singh was on internal patrolling duty, Constables Ranjit Singh and Jaswant Singh were on Tower Sentry duty while Warder Joginder Singh was also on internal patrolling duty as assigned to them spread time-wise between 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the fateful night. After the incident they were placed immediately under suspension by the 5th respondent.