J L N SAVITA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner has challenged the validity of the order of Divisional Personnal Officer, Western Railway, Jaipur, dated July 30, 1976, by which the petitioner was compulsorily retired from service.

(2.) THE petitioner was a clerk belonging to non-gazetted class III cadre in Western Railway. An enquiry pertaining certain charges of corruption was conducted against him and ultimately the petitioner was compulsorily retired by way of penalty by the order of the Divisional Personnal Officer, Jaipur.

(3.) THE second contention raised by the petitioner is also without force inasmuch as it appears from Annexure 5 (b) that after evidence by the Department as well as the defence, evidence had been closed, the petitioner was examined and he expressed a desire to examine five more witnesses. A question was however put to him as to what was the relevancy of evidence of those witnesses? To this, he could not give any satisfactory answer and consequently the Enquiry Officer refused to summon the additional witnesses after the defence evidence had been closed on the ground that the petitioner was adopting dilatory tactics. In my opinion, the view taken by the Enquiry Officer is correct and does not suffer from any error of law or fact.