Madhya Pradesh High Court: This petition was filed before the Bench of Prakash Shrivastava, J., under Article 226 of the Constitution where petitioner challenged an order by which the punishment of dismissal from service was imposed and also the order which dismissed the appeal and affirmed the order of punishment.
Facts of the case were that petitioner, a Clerk-cum-Cashier in Bank was charge-sheeted for misconduct for unauthorized absence for a period of 537 days and was issued show cause notice and thus was dismissed from his post challenged by petitioner in the appeal which was also dismissed. Petitioner submitted that he was ill and could not have attended the office thus when he joined he had submitted medical documents. He stated that he was ready to forego the backwages and prayed for his reinstatement. In terms of Regulation 22 of Nimar Kshetriya Gramin Bank (Officers & Employees) Service Regulation, 2001 the unauthorized absence of an officer or employee was misconduct liable for disciplinary action and in terms of the Regulation 38 dismissal is one of the major penalty if the misconduct is proved.
High Court was of the view that enquiry officer had applied all due process and given petitioner reasonable opportunity. It was found that petitioner had not submitted any medical documents and charge against him was duly proved. Hence, the punishment of dismissal from the post of Clerk was a reasoned order where petitioner was given opportunity. Since, misconduct by petitioner was proved his dismissal from his post was rightly imposed on him as a penalty. The Court, it was observed, under its writ jurisdiction does not act as an appellate body but examines only the illegality in the decision-making process. Therefore, this petition was dismissed. [Pushpa Shukla v. State of M.P., WP No. 2819 of 2005, dated 28-02-2019]
