STATE OF M.P. Vs. BANI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I . Civil Appeal No 3046 of 1985 has been filed against the order dated 16 12 -1987 of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur Bench, in C. A. No. 102 of 1987 and Civil Appeal No. 3045 of 1988 has been filed against the order of the same Tribunal dated 25th January, 1988 in O. A. No. 201 of 1986.

(2.) O . A. No. 201 of 1986 is a petition filed by the Respondent. Bani Singh, I.P.S officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and a direct recruit of 1964 batch, under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking the following reliefs:

(3.) THE appeal against the order dated 16 -1 2 -1987 has been filed on the ground that the Tribunal should not have quashed the proceedings merely on the ground of delay and laches and should have allowed the enquiry to go on to decide the matter on merits. We are unable to agree with this contention of the learned Counsel. The irregularities which were the subject matter of the enquiry is said to have taken place between the years 1975 -1977. It is not the case of the department that they were not aware of the said irregularities, if any, and came to know it only in 1987. According to them even in April, 1977 there was doubt about the involvement of the officer in the said irregularities and the investigations were going on since then. If that is so, it is unreasonable to think that they would have taken more than 12 years to initiate the disciplinary proceedings as stated by the Tribunal. There is no satisfactory explanation for the inordinate delay in issuing the charge memo and we are also of the view that it will be unfair to permit the departmental enquiry to be proceeded with at this stage. In any case, there are no grounds to interfere with the Tribunal's orders and accordingly we dismiss this appeal.