P.K.BHASIN, J. - (1.) THE petitioner has challenged the termination of his services with the Oriental Bank of Commerce, respondent no.1, by way of imposition of penalty of dismissal imposed upon him by his Disciplinary Authority vide order dated 21st December, 1998 after he had been found guilty in a departmental enquiry of some fraudulent/unauthorised acts committed by him while he was posted as Chief Manager at the Mahipalpur branch of the bank in Delhi.
(2.) THE relevant facts may briefly be noticed before proceeding further to consider the grounds of challenge taken by the petitioner in this petition. THE petitioner had joined the Oriental Bank of Commerce (hereinafter to be referred as RS.the Bank') as a clerk in the year 1974 and thereafter he had been getting promotions from time to time. He was promoted as Chief Manager in the year 1994 and during the period of his posting as the Chief Manager at the Mahipalpur branch he was served with a suspension order dated 5th March, 1997 as he was reported to have committed certain fraudulent acts which had exposed the bank to a considerable risk of loss of money. THEn vide letter dated 17th November, 1997 he was informed by the bank the acts of misconduct committed by him and his explanation was sought to those allegations. THE petitioner submitted his reply denying each and every allegation but the same was On 23rd not found to be satisfactory by the Disciplinary Authority. January, 1998 the petitioner was served with a charge-sheet on same allegations which had been mentioned in the bank's earlier letter of 17th November, 1997. The allegations made against him in the charge-sheet were that:- Charge 1 He unauthorisedly purchased two cheques of Rs. 50 lacs each on 26.3.93, in the account of Shri Rakesh Kumar (a fictitious account). The said cheques were not sent for collection to the drawee bank and the proceeds were converted into term deposits at Extension Counters attached to B/O Mahipalpur. Subsequently, drafts in hand ac/ entries of the said cheques were reversed on 16.4.1993 from the proceeds of a demand loan of Rs. 1 crore raised in the name of Shri Rakesh Kumar B/O Basant Lok with the connivance of Incumbent-in-charge of that Branch namely Shri S.K. Arora (since removed from Bank's service for his fraudulent acts). The said loan standing at B/O Basant Lok was adjusted out of the proceeds of term deposits which were originally made after discounting above cheques. By his above acts Shri R.N. Rattan did not discharge his duties with integrity, honest, devotion and diligence and acted in a manner which is unbecoming of a Bank Officer. Thus, he violated Regulation 3(1) of Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees (conduct) Regulation, 1982 which read with Regulation 24 of the said Regulations constitutes misconduct punishable under Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1982. Charge 2 He unauthorisedly debited Rs. 22,537/- and Rs. 17,463/-(total Rs. 40,000/- to interest paid account (CDR) on 25.7.95 without mentioning any detail of any CDR in the voucher and fraudulently credited the funds to the current account of Shri Rajeev Aggarwal (CA No. 955) and M/s Mool Chand Motors (CA No. 1121) respectively. By his above acts Shri R.N. Rattan did not discharge his duties with integrity, honesty, devotion and diligence and acted in a manner which is unbecoming of a Bank Officer. Thus the violated Regulation 3(1) of Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Conduct) Regulations, 1982 which read with Regulation 24 of the said Regulations constitutes misconduct punishable under Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1982. Charge 3 He had allowed fictitious loands aggregating to Rs. 58 lacs on 10.5.1995 in the names of three non-existing persons as per details given hereunder:- Date of Advance Name of Fictitious Account A/C of Loan 10.5.1995 Shri Moti Ram Rs. 20.20 lacs 10.5.1995 Shri Kulwant Singh Rs. 27.00 lacs 10.5.1995 Marry Jones Rs. 10.80 lacs Total Rs. 58.00 lacs The proceeds of all the above accounts were credited to current Account No. 955 of Shri Rajeev Agarwal from where the total amount of Rs. 58 lac was transferred to Loan Account Rs. 228 of one Shri Rajeev Agarwal(of M/s Mool Chand Motors) which was unsecured and clean in nature. By his above acts Shri R.N. Rattan did not discharge his duties with integrity, honesty, devotion and diligence and acted in a manner which is unbecoming of a Bank Officer. Thus he violated Regulation 3(1) of Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Conduct) Regulations, 1982 which read with Regulation 24 of the said Regulations constitute misconduct punishable under Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1982. Charge No.4 He had unauthorisedly allowed/sanctioned advances to M/s Mool Chand Motors and its Associates as per details given below: (a) He unauthorisedly sanctioned OD limit of Rs. 4.12 lacs to M/s Mool Chand Motors (CA -1048) on 03.05.94 against FDR for Rs.5.50 lacs favouring Sh. Moti Ram ( a fictitious account). (b) He sanctioned CC limit of Rs.5 lacs (CC A/C No. 23) + to M/s Mool Chand Motors against stock without obtaining stock statement and charging any security and unauthorisedly accommodated upto Rs. 9 lacs during the period 25.06.94 to 06.09.94. (c) He unauthorisedly allowed a working capital term loan of R.7.47 lacs to M/S Mool Chand Motors on 06.09.94 beyond the lending powers vested with him. (d) He sanctioned limit of Rs.10.50 lacs to M/S Mool Chand Motors (OD A/c No. 1121) and unauthorisedly accommodated upto Rs.16 lacs. He also unauthorisedly allowed clean OD to the said firm ranging from Rs.8 lacs to 24 lacs during the period 01.06.95 to 31.07.95. (e) Sh. Rattan sanctioned OD limit of Rs.10.97 lac to M/s Shivam Oil Co. (Prop.M/S Rajeev Aggarwal) but unauthorisedly accommodated from Rs.15 lacs to Rs.37.88 lacs during the period 22.12.93 to 06.01.94. (f) He unauthorisedly allowed demand loan of Rs.52.50 lacs to Sh. Rajeev Aggarwal in irregular manner on 08.01.94 against FDR No. 11/94 dated 07.01.94 for Rs.70 lacs issued by B/O Basant Lok, New Delhi in the name of the "Ram Jan Bhumar" a non-existent entity. He also unauthorisedly verified the signatures of said RS.Ram Jan Bhumar" on the back of FDR knowing very well that the said named person is fictitious. (g) Sh. Rattan unauthorisedly credited the proceeds of following CDRs: No. Amount Favouring 185/94 Rs.22.05 lac Sh. Kamal 268/94 Rs. 7.90 lac Sh. Rajeev 860/94 Rs.1.50 lac Sh. Rajeev 1046/94 Rs.4.00 lac Sh. Kamal To the current account no. 955 of Sh. Rajeev Aggarwal without any mandate from the customers. (h) He unauthorisedly allowed clean OD to M/S Rajeev Aggarwal in CA No. 955 ranging from Rs.2.25 lacs to Rs.16 lacs during the period 25.01.94 to 24.11.94. Subsequently he sanctioned an OD limit of Rs.13.50 lac against deposit in the said account but unauthorisedly accommodated upto Rs.26.51 lacs during the period 31.05.95 to 15.04.96. By his above acts Sh. R.N. Rattan did not discharge his duties with integrity, honesty, devotion and diligence and acted in a manner which is unbecoming of a Bank Officer. Thus, he violated Regulation 3(1) of Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (conduct) Regulations, 1982 which read with Regulation RS.24' of the said Regulations constitutes misconduct punishable under Oriental Bank of Commerce Officer Employees' (Discipline and Appeal) Regulations, 1982. The petitioner in his reply dated 9th February, 1998 had generally denied the allegations. In view of his denial of the allegations it was decided by the bank to conduct a regular departmental enquiry. One Mr. S.P.N. Singh was appointed as the enquiry officer who conducted the enquiry and vide his report dated 30th October, 1988 held the petitioner guilty of all the four charges mentioned in the charge-sheet. The petitioner was then given an opportunity to make a representation against the enquiry officer's report which he did but the same was also not accepted and the Disciplinary Authority vide its order dated 21st December, 1998 imposed upon him major penalty of dismissal from service which penalty was further made to be ordinarily a disqualification for future employment.
(3.) THE petitioner thereafter filed an appeal before the Appellate Authority of the bank and before the Appellate Authority he took the same grounds which he had taken in his earlier representations to the Disciplinary Authority in response to the enquiry officer's report. THE Appellate Authority, however, did not dispose of his appeal for considerable time and feeling aggrieved with the non-dismissal of the appeal, the petitioner filed a writ petition in this Court (being CWP No. 2415/1999) challenging his dismissal from service. However, that writ petition was dismissed in limine on the ground that the same was pre- mature as his appeal was pending before the Appellate Authority. However, the Appellate Authority did not take any decision on his appeal for another period of five months after the dismissal of his writ petition and then the petitioner once again approached this Court by filing the present writ petition impleading the bank as well as the Appellate Authority and challenged the impugned order dated 21st December, 1998 passed by the Disciplinary Authority dismissing him from bank's services. THE petitioner had prayed for a writ of Certiorari quashing his dismissal order dated 21st December, 1998 and also for issuing a writ of Mandamus directing the bank to re-instate him in service with all consequential benefits. It appears that during the pendency of the present writ petition the Appellate Authority rejected the petitioner's appeal and confirmed the punishment imposed upon him by the Disciplinary Authority. That decision of the Appellate Authority was communicated to the petitioner vide bank's letter dated 25th February, 2000. The petitioner, however, does not appear to have raised any challenge to the order passed by the Appellate Authority by amending his writ petition. However, his counsel Sh. R.M. Bagai urged before this Court that the order of the Disciplinary Authority dismissing the petitioner from service was unsustainable as also the enquiry officer's findings in respect of each one of the four charges of misconduct levelled against the petitioner. Mr. Bagai contended that findings of the enquiry officer on all the charges are perverse and had been arrived at by relying upon the evidence of those witnesses who themselves were also equally involved in the so-called dubious transactions done by the petitioner, if at all he had done that, and those findings cannot be sustained at all. The petitioner in this regard has sought support from an inspection report in respect of his branch by Shri O.P. Sharma, who later on was presenting the case of the bank during the enquiry also against the petitioner. Copy of some extracts from that report were annexed with the petition as Annexure RS.P-9' which shows that SW-3 Reeta Grover was also found to be involved in the transaction of purchase of two cheques in question besides the petitioner, Mr. S.K. Arora and one Mr. Seth, Manager of the Extension Counter at Kathuria Public School and Mr. R.K.Gupta, Manager of Extension Branch at Air Force Station and who had also appeared in the present enquiry as SW- 2. It was contended by Mr. Bagai that the innocence of the petitioner was evident from the fact that no financial loss whatsoever was caused to the bank from the impugned transactions and the entire money advanced in different accounts was received back and on this ground alone the petitioner deserved to be exonerated and reinstated in service. It was also submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that even if this Court comes to the conclusion that no interference whatsoever is called for in the present matter as far as the guilt of the petitioner is concerned the punishment of dismissal from service imposed upon him certainly deserves to be set aside and substituted with a lesser punishment considering the fact that no financial loss had occurred to the bank. Mr. Bagai had also cited some judgments of the Supreme Court in support of his submissions. ;