SURJIT SINGH SHER GILL Vs. DIVISIONAL SUPDT NORTHERN RLY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was a Travelling Ticket Examiner in the Northern Railway in the Allahabad Division and was posted at Kanpur. He was served with a charge sheet dated September 17, 1958, levelling the following two charges against him and he was asked to furnish his explanation:

(2.) THE first point urged by learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Divisional Commercial Superintendent was not competent to impose the punishment upon the petitioner. The petitioner is governed by the Northern Railway Discipline and Appeal Rules for non-gazetted railway servants. Rule 2 enumerates punishments that may be imposed upon railway servants. Rule 3 provides that the General Manager may impose any of the penalties specified in Rule 2 and empowers him to delegate to the authorities subordinate to him power to impose these penalties except the withholding of provident fund contribution and gratuity and the reduction or withholding of pensions. Rule 4 states that the powers to impose the penalties specified in Rule 2 have been delegated to the authorities specified in Appendix 'A'. It further states that the following points must, however, be borne in mind:

(3.) THE third submission made by learned counsel for the petitioner is that the punishment imposed upon the petitioner amounts to reduction in rank. He places reliance upon a decision of the Supreme Court in P. C. Wadhwa v. Union of India, AIR 1964 SC 423. In that case, Wadhwa had been reverted to a subordinate rank and the Supreme Court had held in the circumstances of that case that the reversion amounted to reduction in rank. This case does not at all help the petitioner. The punishment meted out to the petitioner is the withholding of his increment for two years affecting his future increments and seniority. He retainea the rank which he held though his future chances of promotion may have been affected. I am unable to see how such an order can at all amount to reduction in rank. There is no force in this contention either.