Jharkhand High Court: Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, J. heard a writ petition that sought to quash the order passed by the respondent whereby the petitioner had been inflicted with the punishment of stoppage of annual increment for six months in Departmental Proceeding.
The petitioner was a constable and was accused of coercion and it was alleged that he forcibly took a thumb impression on a blank paper. He was also accused of several offences under different sections of Penal Code, 1860. Pursuant to that charge, Enquiry Officer was appointed and departmental proceeding was initiated against the petitioner. The charges against the petitioner were proved and an enquiry report was not supplied to him in the first instance but along with the second show cause notice.
Learned counsel for petitioner, D.K. Dubey, contended that the lady who made the accusation told the Conducting Officer that she had not given any application in the hands of the petitioner nor did she know him. Furthermore, he argued that she had not made any complaint against the petitioner. Counsel, thus, pleaded that if there were no accusations against the petitioner, then the order was fit to be quashed.
Learned counsel for respondent, Rajesh Kumar Singh, submitted that impression was taken on a blank paper by the accused and she had stated that in the complaint petition, no explanation was given to her for the same. Also, it came later to her knowledge that no complaint was lodged against the petitioner. The counsel, further, submitted that the statement given by the lady that no complaint was filed against the accused was made under coercion.
The Court observed that the enquiry officer took into account the two complaints which were brought on record in the writ petition and the enquiry officer came to a conclusion that usage of coercion to obtain the statement in favor of the petitioner could not be ruled out and therefore, the petitioner was held guilty. The Court remarked that there was no illegality in the inquiry report and punishment order was in accordance with the law. Moreover, the Court remarked that when an employee was dismissed or removed from service and the inquiry was set aside because the report is not furnished to him, the non-furnishing of the report would cause prejudice to him or might not affect the nature of punishment at all. However, in the instant case, the petitioner was not able to highlight what prejudice had been caused to him due to non-supply of the enquiry report. Hence, the writ petition was dismissed.[Amiruddin v. State of Jharkhand, Writ Petition (S) No. 3142 of 2014, decided on 20-06-2019]
