- (1.) THE petitioner has assailed the impugned orders dated 31.01.2004 and 10.09.2004 whereby the petitioner was dismissed from service and his statutory appeal was also dismissed.
(2.) AS per the averments made in the writ petition, the petitioner was appointed on the post of Daftari in the Bank of Baroda on 02.02.1978. Subsequently, he was promoted on the post of Clerk -cum -Cashier on 02.10.1984. While the petitioner was posted as Head Cashier at Dostpur Branch of Bank of Baroda in District Sultanpur, a charge -sheet was issued by the Disciplinary Authority to the petitioner on 26.02.2002 whereby certain allegations were made against the petitioner with regard to forged entry in the Bank records and Mr. J.N. Saxena, Senior Manager was appointed as inquiry officer. The charge -sheet was amended by issuing a corrigendum on 16.05.2002 and the amount involved in the charge was corrected. The charges against the petitioner were that he knowingly made forged entry in the records of the Bank and facilitated withdrawal of Bank fund fraudulently. The second charge was that the petitioner connived with Mr. M.P. Yadav to withdraw Rs.50,000/ - from his Saving Bank Account fraudulently, which was done pre -judicial to the interest of the Bank. During the course of inquiry, the petitioner made demand of some documents to give effective reply, but the request was turned down by the inquiry officer. The petitioner, however, submitted his defence arguments and the inquiry officer submitted his inquiry report on 23.08.2003. When the petitioner was provided with a copy of the inquiry report, he submitted comment on 23.09.2003. The petitioner was served with a proposed punishment notice by the Disciplinary Authority on 02.01.2004 and on 31.01.2004, the petitioner was served with the order of punishment, whereby he was dismissed from service. The petitioner preferred an appeal on 30.03.2004 before the appellate authority and on 10.09.2004 his appeal was also rejected.
(3.) I have heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the record. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the complaint was made by Mr. M.P. Yadav on 20.06.1998 and from the perusal of the contents itself, it is clear that the Bank Manager Mr. Narain Singh was handed over Rs.50,005/ - by Mr. M.P. Yadav and the Branch Manager, Mr. Narain Singh himself made the entry in the pass book of the complainant Mr. M.P. Yadav. Thus, the transaction took place between the Branch Manager and the complainant. The petitioner was not in any way involved in this transaction. The petitioner made a request to the inquiry officer to provide him the relevant documents, but neither the inquiry officer nor the appellate authority considered this important aspect of the matter that the petitioner was not provided with the copies of the relevant documents. In the absence of these documents, the petitioner could not give effective reply to meet the charges leveled against him. The petitioner also clearly submitted in his reply that from the complaint of Mr. M.P. Yadav, it was clear that he paid the money to the Branch Manager and he nowhere stated that money was given to the petitioner. Thus, there was no connivance between the petitioner and the complainant. The Bank Authorities in order to escape their liability, got a complaint made against the petitioner, who was working as Cashier and the inquiry officer also in order to save the higher officers of the Bank submitted inquiry report against the petitioner. The appellate authority also did not consider all these materials and dismissed the appeal.;