- (1.) BY Court: Heard counsel for the parties.
(2.) BY the impugned order dated 24th January 2003 contained at Annexure -11 passed by the Disciplinary Authority -cum -General Manager (GB) of the respondent State Bank of India, the petitioner has been dismissed from service. He preferred an appeal before the Chief General Manager -cum -Appellate Authority of the respondent Bank vide Annexure -12 which was also dismissed by speaking order dated 18th June 2003 (Annexure -13). The petitioner was served with a charge sheet in respect of certain misconduct which he is said to have committed while posted as Dy. Manager at Dhanbad branch of the respondent Bank. The petitioner had earlier been placed under suspension by order dated 16th February 2000 (Annexure -1). The order of suspension indicate that during his incumbency as In -charge, Draft Issue Section at Dhanbad Branch, serious irregularities have been committed by him. The Disciplinary proceeding thereafter followed on the charges alleged in the charge sheet dated 7th November 2001. The statement of allegations which were annexed to the charge sheet inter -alia contain seven different allegations against the petitioner, which are as follows: "i. He irregularly passed for payment of five drafts by cancellation on 22nd July 1997 in a fraudulent manner and got issued a banker's cheque favouring ACC Ltd for Rs. 49,496 and passed on the pecuniary benefits to one M/s Sandeep Enterprises, Chandankiary, a retail cement shop allegedly owned by one Sandeep Banerjee who happens to be the son of the petitioner. The details of the drafts were annexed as Annexure -A to the charge sheet. In all the cases, he did not obtain application from the bonafide purchasers of the drafts and did not mark noting in the Draft issue Register. He did not even mention the fact of payment by cancellation over the relative vouchers. ii. On 9th April 1999, he irregularly paid twenty -one drafts amounting to Rs. 2,31,862.40 by cancellation. All these drafts were purchased by the Director, BIT, Sindri. These drafts were tendered at the branch for payment by cancellation and credited to Government Account head "0202 . Instead of crediting the proceeds to Government Account (Head 0202), he got issued a draft No. 421878 dated 9th April 1999 for the same amount drawn at Hirapur branch favouring M/s Gopal Agencies. The same was presented for payment through clearing by Canara Bank and was paid on 10th April 1999. M/s Gopal Agencies, an authorized distributor of Century Cement, received payment on account of cement supplies to the firm M/s Sandeep Enterprises, Chandankiary allegedly owned by his son. He thus passed the pecuniary benefit of the drafts in question to his son in a fraudulent manner. The details of the drafts were annexed as Annexure -B. iii. On 24th May 1999, he allegedly removed twenty -one drafts amounting to Rs. 62,381.08 issued by Dhanbad branch and passed those drafts for payment by cancellation. From the proceeds, he got issued a banker's cheque drawn in favour of Dhanbad Central Co -operative Bank Ltd. "Account Gopal Chandra Banerjee . The said banker's cheque was presented by Cooperative Bank Ltd through clearing for crediting the amount of S.B. A/c No. 334/3 of Shri Gopal Chandra Banerjee maintained at their end. It has been alleged that later on, he obtained a cheque from Shri Gopal Chandra Banerjee for similar amount of Rs. 62,381.08 and got credited the amount on 31st May 1999 in his joint current account with his wife Mrs. Gouri Banerjee. (C.A./c No. 30/1093) maintained at the Branch. The details of the drafts are furnished in Annexure -C. iv. On two more occasions i.e. on 24th July 1999 and 05th August 1999, four drafts on each date for Rs. 17,934.42 and Rs. 10.870.67 respectively were paid by him by cancellation. The drafts were purchased by various Government Agencies and remained undelivered. It is alleged that he got issued the banker's cheque no. 518411 dated 24th July 1999 for Rs. 17,934.42 and another banker's cheque no. 518500 dated 05th August 1999 for Rs. 10,870.67 in favour of Punjab National Bank from the proceeds of the drafts paid by cancellation. Subsequently, the payee's names on the banker's cheque were altered to read as "Punjab National Bank -Account G. Banerjee . The proceeds of these banker's cheques were allegedly credited to the account no. 6024 maintained by him in the joint names with his wife Smt. Gouri Banerjee at Punjab National Bank. The details of the drafts are furnished in Annexure -D. v. On 14th February 2000, he passed for cash payment by cancellation of six drafts for an aggregate amount of Rs. 30,400/ - issued in favour of Secretary, STA. U.P., Lucknow. The purchasers signature on the reverse of the instruments in question was prima facie found to be forged by him and received the payments in cash in a fraudulent manner. The relevant entries in draft account reversing debit schedule (No. 65) were allegedly also issued by the petitioner. The details of drafts are furnished in Annexure -E. vi. On the same day, when the matter came to light, he surrendered Rs. 13,400/ - in cash and a draft for Rs. 17,000/ - purchased on the same day by him from the proceeds of the payment taken against six drafts which is mentioned above. vii. He allegedly passed for payment on 25th February 1997 a forged draft amounting to Rs. 92,000/ - favouring M/s New Alankar Jewellers issued by Bankura branch (Bengal Circle) presented through clearing by Canara Bank, Dhanbad. He did not verify the signatures of the signing officials appearing in the impugned draft with the specimen signature recorded with the Bank before authorizing payment thereof.  List of documents which are referred to in the charge sheet, were enclosed with the statement of imputation of allegations as Annexure -III. There -after, it appears that a criminal case was also registered against the petitioner being Dhanbad P.S. Case No. 110/2000 under sections 420/465/468/471/477(A)/409/120(B) of the Indian Penal Code.
(3.) THEREAFTER , it appears that the inquiry was conducted by the Inquiry Officer R.K. Jaiswal and the Inquiry Report was submitted on 25th July 2002 (Annexure -8). It however appears that a truncated document has been filed as Inquiry Report on the part of the petitioner and no statement has been made in the writ petition to allege that the petitioner was not supplied with the complete inquiry report. As a matter of fact, even in the Memo of Appeal which is annexed as Annexure -12 after imposition of punishment of dismissal by the Disciplinary Authority, there is no such ground taken that full Inquiry Report was not served upon him.;