S.S. Saron, J. - (1.) - The petitioner Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia in the present writ petition has made the following substantive prayers:- "(ii) And to issue a writ of Mandamus for directing that the inquiry against the respondents be ordered to be entrusted to some independent investigation agency for thorough probe into the allegations of massive corruption having been done by the concerned respondents; (iii) And also to issue a writ of Certiorari for quashing the orders Annexure P-5, passed by Superintendent, Department of Industry and Commerce, Punjab, deciding to shelve the inquiry report submitted by Department of Vigilance, be quashed, and also the order, Annexure P-10, vide which the SSP, Rupnagar, observed that no cognisable case is made out for warranting any police action;"
(2.) The petitioner was Manager (Materials) in the Punjab Communication Limited ('PCL' - for short). He sought voluntary retirement from the PCL with effect from 31.12.2006. According to the petitioner, the subject matter of the present writ petition has its genesis in a report of physical verification of assets of the PCL as on 31.03.1992 in which pilferage of assets is sought to have been pointed out. The petitioner states that he has been struggling to get an independent probe into the entire matter by filing civil writ petitions or public interest litigations from time to time. The present petition is a culmination of the continued efforts of the petitioner for getting the culprits punished in accordance with law. The petition is stated to be maintainable.
(3.) It is submitted that in terms of the District Attorney's report (Annexure P10), an inquiry against the officers/employees of the PCL had been shelved without giving any cogent reasons. The petitioner, therefore, prays that an inquiry be entrusted to the CBI or some other independent agency so that the serious allegations are thoroughly investigated and the culprits brought to book. According to the petitioner, the Superintendent Police, Vigilance Bureau, Phase-I, Punjab, Chandigarh vide letter dated 06.10.1997 (Annexure P1) addressed to the Chief Director, Vigilance had endorsed the D.D.A. (Deputy District Attorney) report and observed that for allegation No. 1 a criminal case under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' - for short) against Store In-charge A.K. Bhatia and Assistant Store In-charge Sanjay Kumar may be filed; besides, for allegations No. 2 and 5 a departmental inquiry against Material In-charge Jaswant Singh and Assistant Material In-charge Narender Pal Singh may be carried out. Allegation No. 1 relates to the physical verification, from which it was found that according to the audit report for the year 1990-91, the cost of short material was about Rs. 3,93,000/- and, thus, this allegation was proved. A mention has been made to various inquiry reports and documents as also communications regarding filing of the reports. The petitioner earlier had filed a writ petition, i.e. CWP No. 7185 of 2006, inter alia stating that since the Director General of Police (Vigilance), Punjab had abdicated his duty by not registering a FIR against the concerned respondents, therefore, the State of Punjab be directed to hand over the inquiry to the Central Bureau of Investigation ('CBI' - for short). The said writ petition, i.e. CWP No. 7185 of 2006, was dismissed in limini on 11.05.2006 by passing an order which reads as follows: "After hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner, we are satisfied that various allegations levelled by the petitioner are already under enquiry by the Director General of Police (Vigilance), Punjab. In this view of the matter, we do not find that the petitioner has any grievance to make for handing over the aforesaid investigation to the C.B.I. In any case, we are satisfied that the petitioner has no locus standi to file the present petition. Dismissed.";