- (1.) Heard Shri Rakesh Kumar learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Shafiq Mirza learned counsel for the respondents and perused the record.
(2.) U.P. State Agro Industrial Corporation Limited is a corporation constituted under the Companies Act and is a government company and admittedly instrumentality of State in terms of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner was appointed in the year 1970 on the post of Accountant and on 20.7.1970 thereafter on the post of Branch Manager in the respondent corporation. His services were terminated by an order dated 23.1.1976. Feeling aggrieved with the impugned order of termination, petitioner filed a regular suit no. 29 of 1976 in the court of Civil Judge Lucknow. Later on after constitution of U.P. State Public Service Tribunal (hereinafter referred as Tribunal) the said case was transferred to the Tribunal. The Tribunal after considering the pleading on record with due opportunity to the parties to lead the evidence arrived to the conclusion that order suffers from vice of arbitrariness and declared the order void and illegal. Operative portion of the order dated 31.12.1980 passed by the tribunal is reproduced as under:- "In view of the above discussions we are of the view that the termination order was passed by way of punishment and since the claimant had not been given any opportunity, the principles of natural justice were contravened. At the sametime the malafides against Sri R.P.Singh have been established. In view of the above findings we set aside the termination order and declare that the said order is void and illegal. It will however be open to the O.Ps. to initiate an enquiry if they so desire against the claimant and thereafter deal with his case as permissible under law."
(3.) Feeling aggrieved with the impugned order passed by the Tribunal the respondent corporation had preferred a Writ Petition No. 1591 of 1981 in this court. The writ petition was heard by a Division Bench and allowed it by the judgement and order dated 10.12.1997, a copy of which has been annexed as Annexure-2 to the writ petition. The Division Bench had set aside the tribunal's order with the finding that the impugned order of termination does not suffer from any impropriety or illegality nor it is violative of Article 311 (2) of the Constitution of India.;