Bal Raj Tuli, J. - (1.) THE Petitioner joined the Irrigation Department as Temporary Engineer (Mechanical) on July 21, 1951 and was promoted to the rank Executive Engineer on April 16, 1958. On December 29, 1961, he was placed under suspension and departmental enquiry was ordered against him. That enquiry commenced in January, 1962 and concluded in June, 1962. After a year the Petitioner was served with a show -cause notice on June 11, 1963, to which he submitted a reply on July 5, 1963. After considering the explanation of the Petitioner, the Government passed an order on July 21, 1964, as under: Your explanation has been carefully considered and found to be unsatisfactory. The Governor of Punjab; in consultation with the Punjab Public Service Commission is, there -r fore, pleased to stop your next two increments without cumulative effect. On August 4, 1964, the following order was passed by the Governor of Punjab, under Rule 7.3 of the Punjab Civil Services Rules, Volume I, Part I: The Governor of Punjab is pleased to reinstate Shri R.S. Chaudhry, Executive Engineer, with immediate effect. The period of suspension of Shri R.S. Chaudhry should not be treated as period spent on duty and he should not be paid anything beyond subsistence allowance already drawn by him. Against this order, the Petitioner made a representation which was rejected on August 20, 1965. Still the Petitioner continued making representations to the Government to the effect that the period of suspension from December 29, 1961, to August 4, 1964, should be treated as period spent on duty and that he. should be allowed full emoluments for that period including the increments that he would have earned if he had not been suspended, He met with no success and his final representation was rejected in August, 1968, where after he filed the present petition.
(2.) WRITTEN statement has been filed by the Secretary to Government, Punjab, Public Works Department. The main point argued by the learned Counsel for the Petitioner is that as a result of the departmental enquiry against the Petitioner he was punished by awarding him a punishment of stoppage of two next increments without cumulative effect. The result of the order dated August 4, 1964, is that his service from December 29, 1961, to August 4, 1964, has been forfeited, and he has been deprived of the full emoluments for that period and the increments that he would have earned. This order, therefore, imposes a penalty on the Petitioner and has been passed without any notice to him nor has any speaking order been passed giving, reasons for the order. On behalf of the Respondents, reliance has been placed on Rule 7.3 ibid which reads as under: 7.3. (1) When a Government servant, who has been dismissed, removed, compulsorily retired, or suspended, is reinstated, or would have been reinstated but for his retirement on superannuation while under suspension, the authority competent to order the reinstatement shall consider and make a specific order: (a) regarding the pay and allowances to be paid to the Government servant for the period of his absence from duty, or for the period of suspension ending with the date of his retirement on superannuation, as the case may be; and (b) whether or not the said period shall be treated as a period spent on duty. 2. Where the authority mentioned in Sub -rule (1) is of opinion that the Government servant has been fully exonerated or. in the case of suspension, that it was wholly unjustified, the Government servant shall be given the full pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled, had he not been dismissed, removed, compulsorily retired or suspended, as the case may be. 3. In other cases, the Government servant shall be given such proportion of such pay and allowances as such competent authority may prescribe: Provided that the payment of allowances under Clause (21 or Clause (3) shall be subject to all other conditions under which such allowances are admissible: Provided further that such proportion of such pay and allowances shall not be less than the subsistence and other allowances admissible under Rule 7.2.
(3.) IN a case falling under Clause (2) the period of absence from duty shall be treated as a period spent on duty for all purposes.;