Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 15 The High Court has today quashed the Government order whereby suspension period of renowned ex-Professor Pediatrics Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura Srinagar was declared as on leave and directed the said period of incumbent be treated on duty.
Dr Wajid Ali, ex-Professor SKIMS through his counsel Hakim Suhail Ishtiaq challenged the Government Order No. 61 SKIMS of 2019 dated 12th of June, 2019 insofar as it directs for treating the period of his suspension (6th of January, 2018) as leave whatever kind due, with a warning to the Ppetitioner to be careful in future.
Justice M Akram Chowdhary quashed the impugned Government Order with the direction to the competent authority to treat the Petitioner-Ali on duty for the suspension period with all consequential benefits.
Dr Wajid was suspended and subsequently charge sheeted for misconduct along with other senior doctors of the institute after found involved in private practice.
During the suspension, he was directed to remain attached with the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir. A full-fledged enquiry was conducted which took more than a year and it didn’t establish his involvement in private practice, due to lack of scientific evidence.
The competent authority, accordingly, accepted the report of the Enquiry Officer and decided to reinstate the Petitioner with immediate effect, with a warning to him to remain careful in future in the discharge of his duties and treated his period of suspension as leave whatever kind due vide Order dated 12th of June, 2019.
The petitioner, immediately after reporting back on duty, on 18th of June, 2019, represented before the SKIMS authorities seeking review of the aforesaid Order dated 12th of June, 2019, insofar as it directed for treating his period of suspension on leave, whatever kind due, however, the concerned authority informed him that the said Order cannot be reviewed for the reason that it is a legal and valid order, compelling him to challenge the impugned order before the court.
Advocate Ishtiaq, appearing for Ali, submitted that, in terms of the mandate of Rule 108-B of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations, it is clear that where the Government servant has been fully exonerated, such Government servant shall be given the full pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled, had he not been suspended.
He has further argued that the petitioner has been exonerated of all the charges levelled against him, yet the period of suspension has been treated as leave whatever kind due, despite the fact that he was attending the office of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, where he was attached during the period of suspension.
On a careful perusal of record and the submissions made by the counsel for the petitioner court recorded that where a Government servant is reinstated by the authority competent to order the reinstatement, an order shall be made regarding pay and allowances to be paid to such Government servant for the period of his absence from duty and, whether or not the said period shall be treated as on duty, with a further stipulation that when the Government servant has been fully exonerated, the Government servant shall be given full pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled had he not been dismissed, removed, compulsorily retired before attaining the age of superannuation or suspended, as the case may be, and this period of absence from duty shall be treated as period spent on duty.
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