DALBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is a retired Chief Engineer from the Irrigation Department of the Government of Haryana, having retired on 30.06.2008. He has challenged the issuance of the charge -sheet issued to him, dated 10.03.2009 (Annexure P -17), and the communication dated 28.06.2012 (Annexure P -25) addressed by the first respondent to the Deputy District Attorney, holding that disciplinary proceedings would lie against a Government servant even when he is acting as an Arbitrator, in a lis between two parties. The petitioner has also challenged the order of the Enquiry Officer, dated 24.07.2012 (Annexure P -27), dismissing two applications filed by the petitioner. By the first, the petitioner sought that the enquiry proceedings be dropped, because against the award made by him as an Arbitrator, the Government had already availed of its remedy under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (henceforth to be referred to as 'the Act'), by challenging the same before the Civil Court. By the second application, the petitioner had stated that the disciplinary proceedings could not be initiated at the behest of a person with a suspicious conduct, who had acted in an injudicious manner with malafide intention and who was also facing allegations of corruption levelled by five employees working in his own department.

(2.) ESSENTIALLY , the petitioner has challenged the disciplinary proceedings initiated against him, charging him with mis -conducting himself while acting as an Arbitrator, in a dispute raised by a Government Contractor against the State of Haryana, with regard to alleged deficiency in payment to the Contractor, by the State, upon completion of a works contract.

(3.) THOUGH a reply has been filed on behalf of respondent No. 1, the necessary contents of which will be referred to subsequently, and the petitioner has also filed a replication thereto, however, learned counsel for the petitioner raised a preliminary issue at the outset, which would require consideration before coming to the merits of the other contentions made in the petition.