S.S. Sodhi, J. - (1.) The matter here concerns the premature retirement of the respondent S.I. Gian Singh in terms of Rule 3(1)(a) of the Punjab Civil Services (Premature Retirement) Rules, 1975 by an order passed on March 22, 1984 (Annexure P-2).
(2.) A reference to the material on record shows that the impugned order of premature retirement is founded upon the adverse remarks contained in the Annual Confidential Report of the respondent S.I. Gian Singh for the year 1983-84. Besides this, there is also mention of four occasions when he was censured during 1983-84. All this, of course, being prior to the recording of the Annual Confidential Report for 1983-84.
(3.) The significant aspect of the matter which deserves note is that the adverse remarks made against the respondent-Gian Singh were not conveyed to him till September, 1984 i.e. till about six months after the impugned order of premature retirement had been passed against him. In dealing with this matter, the learned single Judge rightly relied upon the judgement of the Supreme Court in Brij Mohan Singh Chopra v. State of Punjab, AIR 1987 SC 948, where it was observed, "Whenever an adverse entry is awarded to Government servant it must be communicated to him. The object and purpose underlying the communication is to afford an opportunity to the employee to improve his work and conduct and to make representation to the authority concerned against those entries. If such a representation is made, it is imperative that the authority should consider the representation with a view to determine as to whether the contents of the adverse entries are justified or not. Making of a representations is a valuable right to a Government employee and if the representation is not considered, it is bound to affect him in his service career, as in Government service grant of increment, promotion and ultimately prematurely retirement all depend on the scrutiny of the service records. Adverse report in a confidential roll cannot be acted upon to deny promotional opportunities unless it is communicated to the person concerned so that he has an opportunity to improve his work and conduct or to explain the circumstances leading to the report. The same consideration must apply to a case where the adverse entries are taken into account in retiring an employee prematurely from service. It would be unjust and unfair and contrary to principles of natural justice to retire prematurely a Government employee on the basis of adverse entries which are either not communicated to him or if communicated representations made against those entries are not considered and disposed of.;