- (1.) The issue involved in this writ petition is the validity of an order of removal from service of the petitioner's husband on account of unauthorised absence and for consequential benefits.
(2.) Although the relief is couched for setting aside the order and for reinstatement of the petitioner's husband, the arguments have been advanced only to the effect that a person who is not known to be alive for a period of not less than 7 years shall be presumed to be dead and the order of removal issued against such a person as though he was deliberately absent, is vitiated and has the portents of disentitling the legal heirs from claiming the benefits that could accrue to the family on the submission that the person is dead. II The facts :
(3.) The admitted case is that the petitioner had joined as an Assistant Lineman at HSEB, Kalayat, district Jind (now Kaithal) and appointed against a regular sanctioned post. He had been later promoted as a Lineman on 28-01-1986. He left the house on 02-08-1998 but never to return. Proceedings had been initiated for his long absence and the Disciplinary Authority after purporting to serve the charge sheet through substituted service and paper publication directed his removal from the post of Lineman with immediate effect vide his order dated 03-08-2000. The appeal had been filed by the petitioner as the wife of the workman assailing the order on the ground that at no stage of the proceedings, any notice has been given and even copy of the order had not been delivered and the proceedings that culminated in the removal of the person who had been missing since 04-08-1998 was not tenable. The petitioner had also brought out the fact that the complaint had been registered with the police and the police had also given an "untraceable report" on 26-07-2003. The appeal had been dismissed by the Appellate Authority vide Office Order Number 220 dated 06-04-2004. He had still further filed a revision before the Revisional Authority and it had also met with the same fate of dismissal by order dated 08-06-2004.;