SHAM SUNDER LAL Vs. CHIEF ENGINEER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sham Sunder Lal, a clerk in the office of the Assistant Town Planner, Jullundur, has questioned through a writ of certiorari under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution his removal from service communicated to him in the letter Annexure 'I' of 6th December, 1962 under the signatures of Shri K.S. Narang, Secretary to Government Punjab, in the Town and Country Planning Department.

(2.) The events which culiminated in the letter which is sought to be impugned in this petition are not in dispute and may briefly be set out. The petitioner, who joined service at first in Multan Division on 23rd of January, 1946, was taken as a clerk in the Town Planning Department of East Punjab and posted at Jullundur. He was confirmed in the post of a clerk in 1st of August, 1952, and eventually joined the office of the Assistant Town Planner in 1958 as Senior Clerk. On 21st of June, 1960, the petitioner, drew a sum of Rs. 1,296/- from the treasury for disbursing it to the members of the staff as wheat advance. Another amount was drawn by the petitioner for payment to the staff on 1st of July, 1960; the aggregate amount drawn by the petitioner for disbursement was Rs. 2,254-24 P. according to the Government but Rs. 1,859/- in the estimate of the petitioner. The Assistant Town Planner (Shri Govardhan Dass) went on tour on 2nd of July, 1960, and the petitioner has averred that on 3rd of July, 1960, which happened to be a Sunday, he received a message that his maternal uncle suddenly died at Amritsar that day. The petitioner went to the house of the Assistant Town Planner on the 4th morning and not finding him there applied for one day's leave and placed the application on his office table. The petitioner alleges, though it is denied by the Government, that the Assistant Town Planner, had passed an order on 21st of June, 1960, that the wheat advance should not be disbursed to the staff that day and also that there was an office by him that any undisturbed amount of over Rs. 200/- should be kept by the petitioner there being no proper chest in the office.

(3.) The petitioner went to Amritsar after he had submitted his application for casual leave for 4th of July, 1960, and this was subsequently extended upto 7th of July, 1960. The petitioner though he returned to Jullundur on 6th July, developed blood pressure that night and for this reason also applied for leave for the 7th July. On the morning of 8th of July, 1960, the petitioner handed over a sum of Rs. 1,859/- to the Assistant Town Planner and it was disbursed to the staff by the office himself. According to the affidavit on behalf of the State, the balance of the amount which was in his hand had already been disturbed by the petitioner though the petitioner says that it was only a sum of Rs. 1,859/- which had to be disbursed.