Uttaranchal High Court: Manoj K. Tiwari, J. contemplated a writ petition filed against the impugned order, where the request of the petitioner for appointing defence representative in an ongoing disciplinary proceeding had been rejected.
Learned counsel for the petitioner B.D. Pande, submitted that petitioner was asked by the Enquiry Officer as to whether he needed a defence representative in the inquiry against him. Petitioner sought four days time to name the defence representative and ultimately he nominated his representative who was enrolled as an Advocate. He further submitted that his request to engage an Advocate as a representative was turned down as there was no provision in the Service Rules for the appointment of an Advocate as a defence representative, thus, it was directed that petitioner cannot claim the assistance of an Advocate as defence representative as of right. Further, the petitioner acknowledged the directions and sought permission to engage another person as his representative.
Petitioner contended that he was a Class IV employee and was not much educated hence he deserved sympathetic consideration of his request by the competent authorities.
The Court accordingly, disposed of the writ, with the liberty to the petitioner to make a formal request for assistance of a defence representative other than an Advocate to the Competent Authority. Competent Authority was directed that after such request from the petitioner they had to examine the same and take an appropriate decision, in accordance with the law.[Dushyant Kumar v. UCO Bank, 2019 SCC OnLine Utt 379, decided on 27-05-2019]
