- (1.) THIS judgment disposes of Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 5629, 5630 and 5631 of 1984. In these petitions, a challenge has been made to the orders of dismissal passed against the petitioner on three counts by the Chief Justice of this Court.
(2.) A reference to the relevant facts is necessary to adjudicate the question of law raised in these petitions. The petitioner joined service as a Clerk on the establishment of the Lahore High Court (predecessor of this Court) in November, 1943. He was promoted as an Office Superintendent of this Court in May, 1971 and was granted the Selection Grade in the year 1976. He attained the age of 58 years in August, 1980. The age of superannuation of the members of the establishment of this Court at the relevant time was 60 years. The petitioner was placed under suspension on December 17, 1981, as an action was under contemplation against him under Rule 35 of the High Court Establishment (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1973, and he was retired from service on attaining the age of 60 years while under suspension with effect from August 31, 1982. Charge Memo No. 12835-E. 1/v. B. , dated June 7, 1982, along with the articles of charge appended thereto, the subject of challenge in C. W. P. No. 5631 of 1984, was served upon the petitioner.
(3.) THE articles of charge read as under: You, Shri Amrik Singh, Superintendent Grade-I of this Court, are guilty of the following charges1. That you while posted as Superintendent in Cash and Bills Branch were entrusted with the duties of Cashier and supervision/checking of all other cash books and other records maintained in that section by the other officials posted under your control. It was your duty to receive moneys from all the branches of this Court for deposits and the amounts of V. P. Ps, from the official of the Post Office and to verify that the entries of these amounts had been made in the Cash Book. It was also your duty, before leaving office, daily to check cash books of Personal Ledger Accounts of the Registrar and the Election Account and to affix your signatures in token of their correctness and to verify the correctness of receipt and payment and remittances into Treasury Banks, Shri Harpal Singh, Senior Assistant, under suspension, working at the relevant time under your control and supervision, had been entrusted by you to maintain the Personal Ledger Account of the Registrar and also the Election Account besides V. P. P. Account of this Court. Shri Harpal Singh had been receiving the payments of the various amounts on different dates between April 1, 1979 to December, 1981 either in cash or through cheques from Shri Dushyant Singh, Senior Assistant (now under suspension) as Accountant of this Court or from the banks against the bills so prepared for the purpose on the requisitions received from the concerned branches and entered them rightly on the receipt side of the Personal Ledger Account but instead of making payments or remittances into the Treasury or depositing in the banks in accordance with the rules and procedure, embezzled the same on occasions and made false entries on the payment side showing the payments/deposits as having actually been made/effected in accordance with the procedure and rules. Similarly, in the Election Account also, Shri Harpal Singh for the period from April, 1979 to December, 1981 either made no entry in the Cash Books of the Election Account or made false entries showing the amounts paid up or deposited in the bank. In the entire period from April 1, 1979 to December, 1981, you had never checked the cash books of both these accounts, i. e. Personal Ledger Account of the Registrar and the Election Account and left office without appending your signatures in token of the correctness of all the transactions daily which you were required to do in your capacity as Superintendent, Cash and Bills and as Cashier. Thus you are guilty of having facilitated the embezzlement being committed by Shri Harpal Singh from the Personal Ledger Account to the tune of Rs. 29,788-73 and of Rs. 3291/-from the Election Account as detailed in the statement of allegations in connivance with Sh. Dushyant Singh, Shri Devinder Mohan Parti, Assistants and Shri Ved Singh Daftri either deliberately or by gross dereliction of your duties and functions. 2. That you failed to check Shri Harpal Singh, Senior Assistant, who had been misappropriating money or embezzling it temporarily as shown in Annexures 'a' to 'd' enclosed with the statement of allegations by making false entries in the cash books i. e. showing their remittance into Treasury whereas he actually deposited the amounts after having retained the same for long period in disregard of the rules and instructions on the subject i. e. depositing the money in the bank within 24 hours of its receipt or the latest by the next working day. Shri Harpal Singh also tampered with stamps of the State Bank of India on the treasury challans bearing scroll Nos. 10, 3, 5, 12, 7, 9, 10, 5, 8, 9, 27, 43, 8, 4 and 6. Shri Harpal Singh also in order to wriggle out of the situation tampered with the cash book entry of December 18, 1980 and the cash book for the period from January 24, 1981 to June 4, 1981 and you failed to detect and kept mum over the matter. Thus the said lapses including the embezzlement of Rs. 29, 788. 73 and Rs. 3291/- from the Personal Ledger Account of this Court and the Election Account respectively has been committed by Shri Harpal Singh in connivance with Sarvshri Dushyant Singh, Devinder Mohan Parti, Assistants and Ved Singh, Daftri had been facilitated by your negligence and utter lack of supervision and control in the performance of your duties as Cashier and Superintendent, Cash and Bills. The nature and extent of irregularities, reflecting total absence of responsibility, the manner and the circumstances in which embezzlements took place clearly show that you were also in connivance with said Shri Harpal Singh and others to the embezzlement. " Shri S. D. Tyagi, District and Sessions Judge (Vigilance), Haryana, was appointed as the Enquiry Officer to enquire into the charges. The Enquiry Officer in his report dated May 5, 1983, held that the charges framed against the petitioner stood proved. On receipt of the enquiry report, the Chief Justice, who was the disciplinary authority, agreeing with the Enquiry Officer, tentatively formed the view that major punishment of dismissal from service should be imposed upon the petitioner. A show cause notice stating the penalty proposed to be imposed upon the petitioner was served upon him on May 14, 1983. Before the expiry of the time mentioned in the aforesaid show cause, the petitioner submitted an application for supply of certified copies of documents mentioned in the application. The request was declined by the disciplinary authority. The disciplinary authority, after examining the findings recorded by the Enquiry Officer in detail, passed orders on June 7, 1983 that the petitioner be dismissed from service. The order of dismissal reads thus: "shri S. D. Tyagi, District and Sessions Judge (Vigilance), Haryana, was appointed as an Enquiry Officer to conduct an enquiry against Sh. Amrik Singh, Superintendent, Cash and Bills Branch of this Court, in respect of the charges detailed in the Articles of Charge dated June 7, 1982. The said Enquiry Officer submitted his report dated May 5, 1983, wherein he came to the conclusion that the charges framed against Sh. Amrik Singh are substantiated. Finding myself in complete agreement with the said report I tentatively formed the view that major punishment of dismissal from service should be imposed upon him. A copy of the report of the Inquiry Officer along with the findings on the articles of charge were supplied to him and a show-cause notice stating the penalty proposed to be imposed upon him was served upon him on May 14, 1983. He was also directed to submit his representation within 15 days of the receipt of the notice which he wished to make against the proposed penalty on the basis of the evidence adduced during the course of the inquiry held against him. Before the expiry of 15 days, Sh. Amrik Singh submitted an application dated May 27, 1983, wherein he requested for the supply of the certified copies of the documents mentioned in the application. At the same time he also prayed for grant of two weeks' time so as to enable him to submit his reply to the show-cause notice. This prayer was declined by me as per my order dated June 1, 1983, and the same was communicated to him. However, he refused to accept the said communication. It appears to me that Sh. Amrik Singh has no justification to offer against the proposed punishment and it is for this reason that he has not chosen to file any representation within the period granted to him. I have minutely examined the evidence produced during the enquiry and the findings recorded by the Inquiry Officer, Statements of Shri Ajit Singh E. W. I, who proved the photostat copy of the duty list bearing the signatures of Sh. Amrik Singh (Ex. E. W. 1/1), Shri D. R. Trikha, D. W. 3, who proved the recorded statements of Sh. Amrik Singh dated February 27, 1982 (Ex. E. W. 3/1) and dated March 2, 1982 (Ex. E. W. 3/2) and of Sh. Harpal Singh dated February 27, 1982 (Ex. E. W. 3/3) and dated March 1, 1983 (EX. E. W. 3. 4) and Sh. Mohan Dutt Sharma, E. W. 2, who proved his report (Ex. E. W. 2/1) dated February 27, 1982, highlight the pre-concert and total complicity of Shri Amrik Singh with Sh. Harpal Singh in embezzlement of Government money. Sh. Harpal Singh in his statement E. W. 3/3 has admitted that he had embezzled an amount of Rs. 29,788. 73/ -. in the Personal Ledger Account and Rs. 3291/- in the Election Account. He has also admitted that some pages of the Cash Book for the period from March 30, 1980 to January 23, 1981 and from January 24, 1981 to June 4, 1981 were changed with the direction of Sh. Amrik Singh, Superintendent He has stated that Cash Book was never checked by Sh. Amrik Singh, Superintendent, nor he asked for the Cash Books for the purpose of checking. In his supplementary statement E. W. 3/4, he has stated that the embezzled amount in the Personal Ledger Account was shared by Shri Amrik Singh, Superintendent besides others. Sh. Amrik Singh has also admitted in his first statement EW. 3/1 that he never checked the P. L. Account and the Election Account and that he never verified the entries of the Cash Book and remittances into the Treasury. The detailed Audit Report Ex. EW. 2/1 of Shri Mohan Dutt Sharma further reveals that Sh. Amrik Singh never authenticated the entries made in the Cash Book pertaining to the period April 1, 1979 to December, 1980. He has also allowed Sh. Harpal Singh to embezzle the Government money as detailed in Annexures 'c', 'd' and 'f' of the Audit Report Ex. EW. 2/1. Furthermore, he allowed Sh. Harpal Singh to tamper with the stamps of the State Bank of India on 15 treasury challans, marked Exts. EW. 2/2 to E. W. 2/16. It is also brought on record that pages 18 to 100 which were not a part of the original Cash Book of the year 1980, have been tampered with and changed and for that reason the closing balance on page 99 was different inasmuch as on the original page 99 of the Cash Book the closing balance was Rs. 27,279. 85p. while on the substituted page 99 the balance was shown as Rs. 6551. 35p. Similarly, the entries of the Cash Book for the period January 24, 1981 to June 4, 1981 did not tally with the entries so made in the Ledger of the Account and that there was no page bearing No. 79 in the Cash Book and rather pages from page 79 to 100 were substituted. The statement of Sh. Ajit Singh EW. 1 shows that Sh. Amrik Singh was posted as Treasurer on August 23, 1962 and became Superintendent Cash and Bills on May 3, 1974. Shri Amrik Singh was sufficiently experienced as to the working of the Cash Section and was holding a responsible post of Superintendent aad was shouldering the onerous duties of the office. He acted hand in glove with Sh. Har-pal Singh and resorted to frauds on a large scale as discussed above. He was a privy to the falsification of the records and allowed to, fall the things in total neglect which only leads to an irresistible conclusion that he was the kingpin of the design evolved to commit the fraud of the government money. Therefore, the charges levelled against him are fully substantiated on record. Shri Amrik Singh had sought to assail the inquiry proceedings by way of Civil Writ Petition No. 2410 of 1983 wherein inter-alia he had prayed for the stay of further proceedings. The Division Bench, however, was pleased to expressly decline the stay on May 13, 1983. Taking into account the totality of the aforesaid circumstances, I am of the view that no case has been made out for imposing any other punishment lesser than the one already proposed to be imposed upon Sh. Amrik Singh. I, therefore,order that he be dismissed from service with immediate effect. Office order be issued accordingly. ";