YASHWANT VARMA,J. - (1.) Heard Sri Harish Chandra, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Ram Gopal Tripathi, who has appeared for the respondents.
(2.) This petition challenges an order dated 19 March 2019 passed by the first respondent imposing upon the petitioner the punishment of stoppage of three annual increments on a permanent basis together with a direction to recover a sum of Rs.1,31,000 representing loss caused to the Federation from the salary of the petitioner. The following brief facts which alone would be relevant for disposal of the writ petition are noted as under;
(3.) The petitioner was appointed in 2006 as a Chowkidar and joined service under the respondent at the District Office in Bulandshahr. On his own request, he was thereafter transferred to the District Office of the Federation at Gautam Buddha Nagar. On 15 November 2018 while the petitioner was going to deposit cash in the Bank, he was assaulted and the moneys being carried on his person stolen. This led to the registration of Case Crime No. 0985 of 2018 under Section 392 I.P.C. In the course of investigation the accused was arrested and on his pointing out a sum of Rs.1,50,000/- was also recovered. The criminal proceedings are ongoing. In the meanwhile and relating to the same incident the petitioner came to be suspended on 28 December 2018. One of the charges levelled against him was that he had mentioned the sum alleged to have been looted to be Rs.6,00,000/- whereas the actual loss that was caused was only of Rs.2,81,033/-. Disciplinary proceedings were then initiated in respect of three charges. The first charge related to the alleged discrepancy between the amount mentioned in the F.I.R. and the actual amount which was looted. The second charge alleged that the petitioner committed gross misconduct in carrying with him the records of the Sale Center and the POS Machine while he was going to the Bank to deposit the cash. The third charge was with respect to a failure on the part of the petitioner to comply with departmental directives. Upon conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings the impugned order has come to be passed.;