MOULVI YAR MOHAMMAD Vs. CORPORATION OF CALCUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE facts in this case are briefly as follows.

(2.) THE petitioner was a permanent stock -verifier employed by the Corporation of Calcutta. He was involved in a criminal case which is known as the ' petrol theft case.' It appears that on or about 9 July 1957 a complaint was lodged with the police, but even before that, on 26 June 1957, the petitioner was placed under suspension with effect from 1 July 1957, Thereafter, he has been drawing his subsistence allowance. On 3 August 1957 he was served with a chargesheet. He submitted his explanation, and the matter came up for consideration by the Standing Finance Committee which considered the matter, and by Its resolution, dated 9 December 1957, postponed the enquiry. Since that time nothing further has been done, so far as the domestic enquiry was concerned. The criminal case is still pending. On 15 March 1960 the petitioner attained his age of superannuation. This is in accordance with Rule 72 of the service regulations of the Corporation of Calcutta which have been framed under the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951. In this case we are concerned with two rules and it would be better to set them out:

(3.) THE matter came up before the Standing Finance Committee sometime in March 1962. The question was: What was to happen to the petitioner who had already attained his age of superannuation under Rule 72 on 15 March 1960 ? I have been shown the minutes of the meeting of the Standing Finance Committee and I find that the committee had doubts upon this point and the Chief Law Officer of the Corporation was consulted. He gave his definite view that Rule 74 would apply, and until the domestic enquiry was brought to an end, the petitioner's service could not be said to have come to an end by superannuation. In spite of this advice, the Standing Finance Committee passed a resolution to the following effect on 29 March 1962 : Resolved: The committee are of the opinion that the services of Moulvi Yar, Mohammad, stock -verifier, accounts department, should be deemed to have been terminated with effect from the date of his superannuation.