- (1.) WE have heard Shri K.N. Tripathi, Sr. Advocate assisted by Shri Ramesh Rai for the petitioner. Shri Amrish Sahai appears for the respondent- bank.
(2.) THE petitioner was appointed as Officer Grade-I, in the erstwhile Basti Gramin Bank in the year 1983. He was promoted as Officer Grade-ll in 1997 w.e.f. 13.9.2005. the bank has become joint venture of Union of India, State of U.P. and State Bank of India, and is now named as Purvanchal Gramin Bank. THE petitioner's service conditions are governed by Purvanchal Gramin Bank (Officers and Employees) Service Regulations, 2005. By this writ petition the petitioner is challenging the order dated 31.12.2007 passed by the Chairman as disciplinary authority imposing punishment upon the petitioner of reduction of rank from Officer Scale-ll to Officer Scale-l, at its first stage, and imposing penalty of Rs. 1 lac as token money. He has also challenged the order of the Board of Directors/appellate authority dated 6.5.2008, confirming the punishment. It is stated that when the petitioner was posted as Branch Manager of Naugarh Branch, some financial irregularities committed by Shri Durga Prasad Misra, an officer attached to the branch of the bank came to the knowledge of the petitioner. He reported the irregularities to the Regional Manager, IVth Region of the bank by his letter dated 8.2.2005. An enquiry was conducted by the Regional Manager, IVth Region of the bank, on the allegations of financial irregularities made by the petitioner. A first information report was lodged against Shri Durga Prasad Misra, Parmatma Prasad, Krishna Dutta Shukla and Hemant Kumar. Shri Durga Prasad Misra was found to have transmitted the money in the account of these three persons at Chilhia Branch of the Bank from where the amount was withdrawn and misappropriated. A first information report registering Case Crime No. 274 of 2005, was lodged on 13.3.2005 under Sections 467,468,471,420 and 409 IPC PS. Naugarh, Distt. Siddharth Nagar. Prior to the registration of first information report an enquiry was also conducted by a three member committee consisting of Shri Vaizan Ahmed, Shri Rakesh Kumar Dwivedi and Shri B.N. Dubey. In their report dated 1.3.2005 they found involvement of Shri Durga Prasad Misra. The petitioner as the Branch Manager of the branch of the bank was placed under suspension pending further investigation by the Chairman of the bank on 2.3.2005. He was served with the chargesheet on 22.3.2006, after one year of the suspension levelling 10 charges. The Articles of Charges imputed allegations of transfer of Rs. 1,69,368/- to the account of Shri Parmatma Prasad at Chilhia Branch. This amount was returned by the Mithwal Branch to the Naogarh Branch of which the petitioner was the Branch Manager, for providing list of the Gram Panchayats to which the amount was to be transferred. The charge No. 2 related to transfer of Rs. 1,61,000/- to the account of Shri Parmatma Prasad in Chilhia Branch on 20.3.2004 from Current Account No. 30120, from where the amount was withdrawn. He was not entitled to receive the amount. The money belonged to the accounts of Gram Panchayat of Belhwa branch, and was returned to the Government. The charge No. 3 related to transfer of Rs. 2,34,042/- to the account of Shri Parmatma Prasad at Chilhia Branch and withdrawals made by him after the amount was deposited on 13.4.2004. This amount belonged to various Gram Panchayats and was the balance on the amount to be transferred by the head office. Charge No. 4 related to transfer of Rs. 1,30,000/- to Chilhia Branch by a credit voucher, where it was deposited on 8.7.2004 and withdrawn by the account holder. This amount was transferred by the authorisation of the charged officer on 5.7.2004. The 5th charge related to transfer of Rs. 35,910/- unauthorisedly on 20.8.2004 by the charged officer to Chilhia Branch, deposited in the Account No. 363 and was withdrawn on various dates. Charge No. 6 related to transfer of Rs. 28,69,133/- by making double payment in the current account of Naugarh Branch maintained by the State Bank of India on 6.10.2004. It was alleged that taking benefit of this double payment the charged officer on 18.10.2004, unauthorisedly appropriated the money in the cash at bank account. Firstly this amount was parked in the miscellaneous account and thereafter it was transferred to the account of the saving account of Shri Hemant Kumar at Chilhia Branch on 18.12.2004 from where the amount of Rs. 4,15,000/- was withdrawn on various dates.
(3.) CHARGE No. 7 related to misappropriation of Rs. 5000/- by firstly appropriating the amount on 19.10.2004 in cash at bank of the branch and thereafter transfer of this amount in the saving bank account No. 5701 of Shri Krishna Dutt Shukla, whereas this amount was not concerned with the account holder. CHARGE No. 8 related to fraudulent misappropriation of Rs. 94,500/- from out of the Gram Shiksha Nidhi of Rs. 25,11,676/- transferred by the Asstt. Finance and Account Officer, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Siddharth Nagar on 27.10.2004. By transferring this amount to various branches an excess amount of Rs. 94,500/- transferred by the Asstt. Finance and Accounts Officer, by mistake. It was fraudulently transferred to the Saving Account No. 5701 of Shri Krishna Dutt Shukla, whereas this amount was to be returned to the Asstt. Finance and Accounts Officer. Charge No. 9 related to instructions written on the information sent to the Chilhia Branch at the time of transfer of Rs. 1,69,368/- on 7.10.2003 with instructions to deposit the amount in SB 363 Shri Parmatma Prasad Misra, whereas no such information was written on the carbon copy retained by the branch and in this manner a false information was found to be recorded on the instructions sent to deposit the amount to the Chilhia Branch. The 10th and the last charge related to the non-reconciliation of the cash at bank account of Naugarh Branch in June, 1998. These accounts were confirmed to be re-conciliated upto 8.11.2004, whereas actually on that date the accounts were not re-conciliated. An outside computer agency engaged for reconciliation also did not make the reconciliation chart, available to the head office.;