- (1.) The petitioner-Gurdial Singh Sidhu, Assistant Manager in Food Corporation of India (for short, the FCI) has approached this Court by way of present Writ Petition seeking quashing of order retiring him from service prematurely and so also order of rejection of his representation annexed as Annexures P-1 and P-11 respectively.
(2.) Apart from opposing the petition on merits, the respondent-FCI has raised preliminary objection in regard to the territorial jurisdiction of this Court to entertain this Writ Petition filed by the petitioner.
(3.) A brief narration of facts leading to the filing of the Writ Petition in order to dispose of the preliminary objection may be made : The petitioner joined the service of the FCI as Technical Assistant Grade-III on 14.04.1969. After having been promoted as Technical Assistant Grade-II in April, 1970 followed by promotion as Technical Assistant Grade-I in August, 1971, the petitioner was promoted as Assistant Manager (Quality Control) in December, 1984. The petitioner has averred that he remained posted at various places in the North Zone till 5th July, 2002 when he was retired from service before attaining the age of superannuation vide order dated 5th July, 2002, Annexure P-1. It is further averred in the petition that the order dated 5th July, 2002 was served upon the petitioner at the place of his permanent residence at Naya Gaon Post Office, Sector 11, Chandigarh. The petitioner claims that during his entire service period with the FCI, he performed his duties with efficiency, devotion, honesty and integrity and that he had always been graded by his superiors as one of the best employees of the FCI. The petitioner has further urged that he had approached different higher authorities for review of the impugned order of retirement and ultimately on 29.10.2003, he submitted a written representation to respondent No. 2 for revocation of the impugned order. The said representation filed by the petitioner has been rejected on 12.01.2004, copy of which is at Annexure P-11. He has also made a mention to his service record which need not be referred in detail in view of the fact that the petition is being disposed of on preliminary objection raised by the respondent-FCI.;