ASHRAFI RAI Vs. THE UNION OF INDIA AND TWO OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this application under Articles 215 and 225 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed;

(2.) The petitioner was engaged as khalasi in North Eastern Railway for construction as casual labour. Shortly before he could complete one year of service he was discharged orally from service with effect from 17.3.1976. The petitioner challenged his discharge in C.W.J.C. No. 2504 of 1976 disposed of on 24.1 J. 1978 (reported in 1979 BRLJ 9). The ground for his discharge was that he had procured his engagement on a forged letter of appointment. The matter came up for consideration before a Bench of this Court of which Uday Sinha, J. was also a member. this Court was called upon to decide whether the petitioner had obtained his engagement by forged letter or not and this Court found that the assertion of the Railways in that regard was not true. In paragraph 5 of the judgment the Bench hearing the earlier writ application held an follows:

(3.) The petitioner has prayed for quashing Annexure -I. It has been submitted that this Court had given a categorical finding that the story of obtaining employment by forged letter of appointment had no basis and therefore, any departmental proceeding would be in contempt of the finding of this Court. The submission is well founded. There can be no dispute over the fact that this Court had conclusively rejected the stand of the Railways that the petitioner had obtained his employment on forge d orders. That matter had been put in issue by the Railways themselves in order to non -suit the petitioner. The Court, therefore, had to record a finding in that behalf Having invited a finding, the Railways cannot now contend that that was not a conclusive finding. In my view, therefore, the Railways cannot be allowed to enquire into that matter once again. Annexure -I must, therefore, be quashed. This, however; does not preclude the Railways from initiating any fresh disciplinary proceeding for any other delinquency or failure by the petitioner. It will be open to them to do so.