- (1.) D. P. Singh, J. Pleadings are complete and the Counsel for the-parties agree that the petition may be finally disposed off under the Rules of the Court. Heard learned Counsel for the parties.
(2.) THIS petition is directed against an order of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal dated 21-7- 1997 accepting the reference of the workman and directing his reinstatement together with 3/4 back wages. The respondent workman was a Cashier in the Ballia Branch of the petitioner Bank when allegations of financial misappropriation were leveled against him and a charge sheet dated 20-6-1977 was issued. After holding an enquiry the services of the respondent workman were dispensed with which gave rise to a reference under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act. The reference was registered as industrial dispute No. 21 of 1996 by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal, Kanpur. After exchange of pleadings the Tribunal framed a preliminary issue with regard to fairness of the enquiry and by order dated 21-1- 1997 it held that the enquiry was vitiated and as such it allowed the parties to lead evidence and by the impugned award the workman has been reinstated with 3/4 back wages. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has urged that the Tribunal had erred in law by discarding the two documents Ex. M-1 and M-2 on untenable grounds. She has further urged that charge No. 4 which was found to be proved by the Tribunal was sufficient to justify the termination of the workman.
(3.) THE case of the petitioner before the Tribunal was that while he was working as Cashier in the aforesaid Branch of the petitioner Bank he had fraudulently withdrawn Rs. 8100 on different dates from the savings Bank account of a customer and destroyed the withdrawal vouchers and further he made entries in the ledger account without being authorized and also interpolated the entries in the pass book of a customer. THE following charges were framed against him vide charge sheet dated 21-6-1977: "you are hereby required to show-cause as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against you on any one or more of the following charges: (I) That you have fraudulently withdrawn an aggregate sum of Rs. 8100/- detailed as under: 9-6-75. . Rs. 600. 00 20-6-75. . Rs. 3000. 00 28-7-75. . Rs. 4500. 00 (II) That, you made the entry for Rs. 4500/-dated 28- 7-75 in the ledger account in your own handwriting although you were not authorized to do so, as you were not working on the savings Bank stat on the material date. (III) That to cover up your aforesaid fraudulent acts you surreptitiously recovered the packets containing the Savings Bank Vouchers of the material dates, which included the above three withdrawals from the Branch. (IV) That certain amount given to you by Mrs. Meena Verma on various occasion, for depositing it in her savings being account No. 1169 were not deposited by you on the concerned dates. To cover up your aforesaid lapses you made fictitious and incorrect entries in the Savings Bank pass-book. You also authenticated entries in the pass-book although you were not authorized to do so, as you were not even officiating as Amad Clerk/officer grade II, at the material time. A few such instance are as follows: (a) On the 3rd September, 1973 you have authenticated the balance in the pass book when a sum of Rs. 10/- was posted in it, but no such amount was deposited in the account holders account. (b) An undated fictitious entry of Rs. 20/-was made by you on the account holders pass book prior to an entry dated the 8th November, 1973 and the resultant balance authenticated by you. (c) An entry of Rs. 400/- was made by you on 8-11-1973 in the pass book although a sum of Rs. 420/- was deposited in the account by you. (d) An entry of Rs. 207/- was said by you on 22-11- 1974 in the account holders pass book although the depositor had deposited only a sum of Rs. 187/ -. (e) Two fictitious entries of Rs. 362/- Rs. 1045/- were made by you on 14-4-1975 although no such deposit was actually made in the account. You are thus guilty of: 1. defrauding the Bank 2. cheating the Banks constituents; 3. accepting in an unauthorized manner funds from the constituents for depositing in their accounts. 4. Tempering with the Banks records; and 5. having tarnished the Banks image. THE aforesaid acts on your part besides being highly detrimental to the interests of the Bank cast grave doubts on your integrity and bona fides. Before the Tribunal the management relied upon a written statement of all the employees of the Branch dated 21-6-1976 addressed to the Branch Manager admitting his guilt and seeking forgiveness with promise to refund the amount after arranging for the money. It also relied upon a confession letter written by the workman and addressed to the Branch Manager dated 28-6-1976 and these documents were marked as Exhb. M-1 and M-2 respectively. To prove the documents it examined Shri Raj Narayan Mishra, Deena Nath Misra, Mukteshwar Pandey and Vijay Pratap Singh. All of them stated that the workman had admitted his misconduct before all the employees of the Branch. In the cross-examination nothing worthwhile was found so far as the authenticity of the two documents are concerned. It would be relevant to quote the wordings of the joint statement of the employees which is extracted hereinbelow: "shri Krishan Kumar Srivastava, Cashier State Bank of India, Ballia City ne apne dwara galat kiye gaye karyon ko hum sabhi karamchariyon ke samaksh rote huye sweekar kiya aur yeh bhi sweekar kiya ki isme maine kisi anya karamchari se kisi prakar ka sahyog nahin liya hai. Jo four thousand five hundred rupiya ki dinaak 28-7-1975 ko savings bank ledger No. 13 ke account No. 1117 mein posting hai. Veh mere dawara hi ki gayi hai. Maine hi sab rupiyaa eight thousand one hundred liya hai aur teeno dino ka sab savings Bank voucher bhi swayam nasht kar diya hai. Main apne is ghrinit karya ke Iiye sharminda hoon aur sab ke samne kshama mangta hoon. Main eight thousand one hundred rupiyaa kisi prakar prabandh karke de doonga. Mujhe kuch samay diya jaye. Abhi yahan se two thousand rupiya ka prabandh kiya hoon. Veh mil jayega aur maine two thousand nine hundred rupiyaa ki gehna apni wife ke liye kharida tha use girvi rakh kar ya bechkar de doonga. Meri behan ka Allahabad City post office mein khata hai. Jis se two thousand rupiyaa mil jayega. Veh bhi de doonga. Baki rakam ke liye prayatansheel hoon aur sheeghra hi prabandh karke pura rupiyaa vapas kar doonga, Ab aap log kirpayaa men naukri dacha lain. Sathan-State Bank of India, Ballia City. Full Name 1. Sd/- Illegible, Officiating B. M. , Sri Dina Nath Mishra 2. Sd/-Illegible, Head Cashier, Sri Gupteshwar Nathpandt 3. Sd/-Illegible, Clerk, Sri Vijay Pratap Singh 4. Sd/-Illegible, Clerk, Sri Parmatma Nand Ram 5. Sd/-Illegible, Clerk-cum-Cashier, A. K. Srivastava 6. Sd/-Illegible, Messenger, Daya Nand Tiwari;