MAHESH LAL Vs. CHAIRMAN BIHAR STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties.

(2.) ON 19.8.1999 the petitioner was suspended and thereafter a notice to show cause was issued to him on 28.7.2000. The petitioner submitted his reply and supplementary reply on 4.8.2000 and 12.8.2000 respectively. After recording the evidence and hearing the parties the Enquiry Officer vide his report dated 25.6.2001 contained in Annexure -5 observed that the Department failed to prove the charges against the petitioner. Vide letter no. 2731 dated 23.7.2002 a second show cause notice was issued to the petitioner (Annexure -6) and a final order was passed by the Department as contained in Annexure -8 on 17.10.2002. The petitioner has come to this Court, inter alia, submitting that once the Enquiry Officer had exonerated the petitioner then without serving the tentative findings the Department could not record its final findings nor could issue composite notice alongwith the final findings proposing the punishment. According to him the procedure adopted by the respondents is patently illegal and punishment order including the second show cause notice deserves to be quashed.

(3.) FOLLOWING the dictum of the Supreme Court in the said matter and other judgments of this Court I must immediately observe that the procedure adopted by the respondents is contrary to law and in fact is in violation of the judgment of the Supreme Court. Accordingly the order of punishment is quashed. The second show cause notice contained in Annexure -6, Office Memo No. 1517 dt. 23.7.2002 is also quashed. As the second show cause notice and the order passed by the disciplinary authority are quashed, as a consequence of it, the order passed by the appellate authority is also quashed. The respondents, however, would be free to proceed further in the matter but in case they disagree with the findings recorded by the Enquiry Officer then they will have to give a notice to the petitioner with their proposed tentative findings, require the petitioner to submit his show cause and after recording their own findings, they may issue a second show cause notice to the petitioner with the final findings as recorded by them.