- (1.) Heard counsel for the parties.
(2.) The petitioner is working on the post of Divisional Accounts Officer-II under the respondent, Office of Accountant General (A&E), Jharkhand. It is the case of the petitioner that he took permission to participate in the selection exercise conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (B.P.S.C.) for appointment to the State Civil Service in which he got selected for the post of District Sub Registrar under the Government of Bihar. In the present writ application he has come with a grievance that the respondent, the Accountant General, Jharkhand is not relieving him to join at the appointed post.
(3.) From the pleadings in the writ petition as well as in the counter affidavit of the respondent - Accountant General, the facts which emerges for determining the issue are as follows:-- The petitioner was in fact working as Divisional Accounts Officer under deputation in the Water Resources Department with the responsibility to undertake audit of the accounts concerned with the office where he was posted. Due to some irregularities that were detected in the execution of the work the department forwarded the proposed charge sheet in Prapatra 'K' on 15.9.2012 to the office of Accountant General, Jharkhand. Incidentally the said irregularities were brought to the notice of this Court in public interest litigation being W.P. (PIL) No. 5415 of 2009 for which the respondents undertook to initiate departmental proceedings against several employees including those who were employees of the Accountant General. A contempt petition was also pursued and the judgment passed in the contempt petition is at Annexure-B to the counter affidavit dated 7.11.2012 itself. The respondent- Accountant General took a decision to initiate departmental proceeding against the petitioner on 13.2.2013 itself. However, on 13.5.2013 when the No Objection Certificate(N.O.C) was given to the petitioner for permitting him to participate in the selection exercise conducted by the B.P.S.C., the said N.O.C. did not refer to any pendency of departmental proceeding against the petitioner. Petitioner, therefore participated in the examination and got selected which was conveyed through notification dated 4.10.2013 giving 30 days time to join on the said post. On the application made by the petitioner for being relieved to join at the newly appointed post on lien for 2 years, the respondents intimated him on 13.10.2013 itself that the departmental proceeding is pending against him, therefore he could not be relieved. Subsequently, on 8.11.2013 charge sheet were also issued against the petitioner for the said departmental proceeding.;