Law:

Section:

Civil service------Imposition of major penalty of removal from service notwithstanding report of inquiry committee---Propriety---Only "slight lapse" in performance of duty by civil servant---Major penalty modified to minor penalty---Railway Department (petitioner) initiated disciplinary action against Divisional Engineer (respondent) after collapse of a railway bridge---Allegation against Engineer was that he did not take appropriate timely action to protect the bridge and safeguard railway traffic---Four charges were levelled against the Engineer, out of which inquiry committee found only one i.e. abnormal delay in processing proposal for repairs of the bridge---Inquiry committee took note of the fact that engineer made correspondence with the Headquarters regarding poor condition of the bridge and necessity of its repair---Inquiry Committee only blamed the Engineer for not submitting an "urgency certificate" to the Headquarters to indicate urgency for carrying out repair works---Notwithstanding findings of the inquiry committee, competent authority imposed major penalty of removal from service on the engineer---Appeal filed by engineer before Service Tribunal was partially allowed, he was reinstated in service and penalty imposed on him was modified to stoppage of one increment for one year---Validity---Engineer did submit proposals to Headquarters for carrying out repairs of the bridge and it was the Headquarters which was, to a great extent, responsible for delay in approving the proposal because of making unnecessary queries---Reports further showed that Engineer did make temporary repairs of the bridge, which remained safe for trains operations during his positing for 12 months and even 17 months after he was transferred out---Only charge found proved by the inquiry committee was Engineer's failure to submit "urgency certificate" to the Headquarters while making proposal for repair of the bridge---Imposition of major penalty on Engineer for such a "slight lapse" was not understandable---Service Tribunal was justified in modifying the penalty imposed to stoppage of one increment---Petition for leave to appeal was dismissed in circumstances and leave was…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492