Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 26: High Court has quashed the premature requirement of Gautam Singh, Junior Assistant of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department with the direction to the Government to reinstate him with all consequential benefits within a period of one month.
After hearing Advocate Rahul Pant for the petitioner, Justice M K Hanjura observed, “an important facet which cannot be lost sight of is that the committee headed by Chief Secretary has given a complete go by to the Regulation 226(2) of the J&K CSR read with the instructions buttressed to it in considering the compulsory retirement of the petitioner”.
“The Regulation lays great emphasis on considering the entire service record of the public servant available in the shape of APRs, service book, personal file- giving the details of the complaints received against him from time to time and so on and so forth”, High Court said.
“While considering the desirability of the retention or otherwise of a public servant, whose conduct has come under a smoke of cloud, his case has to be considered on the parapet and the bulwark of the chain of the documents/ service particulars”, Justice Hanjura said, adding “in order to attach a semblance of fairness to such an order, the entire service record of a public servant, more significantly the service record of the previous years preceding the decision, has to be assessed and evaluated”.
“These cannot be skipped and shelved in formulating such an opinion by taking umbrage under the plea that the same were not available as stated in this case. If these are disregarded and omitted in the matter of the accord of consideration to the case of the compulsory retirement of a public servant, the whole exercise will get vitiated under the colour of the non-application of mind and the decision having been taken not on just grounds”, High Court further said.
“The reputation of a public servant cannot be termed as doubtful and his conduct cannot be determined only on spoken words in the absence of any material on record. This is a fundamental flaw in the order issued against the petitioner, whereby he has been shown the door”, Justice Hanjura said while quashing the compulsory retirement of the petitioner.
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