UNION OFINDIA Vs. SAHAB DAYAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition the Union of India has assailed the legality and validity of the impugned order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna Bench, Patna rendered in T. A. No. 6 of 1997, recorded, on January 7, 2005, inter alia, quashing the order of dismissal from service by the appellant which came to be made pursuant to the result of the domestic enquiry against the respondent-original petitioner, who was working as an Assistant Foreman and later on promoted to the post of Scientific Assistant 'C' Grade in the year 1974 and while he was discharging his duty in the Reactor Operation to handle heavy water to be used for Atomic Power in Heavy Water Plant at Kota, there was an incident, which is the foundation stone of the entire litigation, which has led to this writ petition. The original petitioner, respondent herein, came to be charge-sheeted on the basis of an incident which occurred, on July 22, 1975, upon an allegation to have taken "Heavy Water." An Enquiry Officer was appointed after the suspension of the original petitioner. The allegation of alleged misconduct as levelled by the department was countered by the original petitioner. Upon conclusion of the enquiry, the petitioner, departmental-authority, passed an order of dismissal from the service accepting the report of the Enquiry Officer.

(2.) The order of dismissal from the service was questioned, initially, before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Rajasthan Bench, which later on came to be transferred to the Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna Bench, Patna. The Tribunal upon critical appraisal, deep probe and evaluation of the entire documentary, as well as, 'viva-voce' evidence and the mechanism for holding the domestic enquiry reached to the conclusion that the impugned order of dismissal from service recorded by the petitioner is suffering from vice of breach of the principle of natural justice, as well as, vice of law.

(3.) Consequently, the impugned order came to be reversed. In the peculiar situational reality and the factual profile the Tribunal thought it expedient not to permit the department to reinitiate or restart the departmental proceedings upon completion of the requisite formalities and upon observance of the principle of natural justice.