VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has observed that it is against the service rules to punish an employee without issuing a charge memo or initiating a departmental inquiry and such an act is not just against the service rules, but also violates the principles of natural justice.
Saying so, the court abolished the punishment imposed on an employee in 1987. The employee, who started the legal battle while in service, got relief after retirement. Ch Lakshminarasaiah from Vizianagaram worked as an inspector in the sericulture department. Stating that his working was not satisfactory, his higher-ups issued a showcause notice to him as to why penalty should not be imposed on him.
Lakshminarasaiah refuted all the charges against him. Not satisfied with the reply, the higher officials had imposed a cut on his increments without issuing charge memo or framing charges or initiating a departmental inquiry against him.
After two increments were cut in November 1987, Lakshminarasaiah went for an appeal in 1988. The higher officials, however, struck down the appeal. In 1989, he filed a revision petition before another inquiry officer. He did not issue any orders till 2005 and after Lakshminarasaiah submitted a representation, the officer struck down the appeal.
Later, he filed a petition before the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal. In 2006, the tribunal struck down the petition on the grounds that it was filed against the punishment imposed in 1987.
Lakshminarasaiah approached the court in 2015 against the tribunal orders.Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, senior counsel M Bhaskar Lakshmi informed the court that the tribunal had struck down the appeal only on the grounds of delay in approaching it.The counsel said the petitioner was not responsible for the delay and it was the officials who failed to act upon the revision petition he filed in 1989 till 2005.
The government, on the other hand, informed the court that though the tribunal gave its verdict in 2006, the petitioner approached the court only in 2015 and sought the dismissal of the petition on the grounds that there was an inordinate delay in filing the petition.
The bench of Justice Manavendranath Roy said the petition could not be struck down only on the grounds that there was a delay. He issued orders stating that the petitioner is eligible to get all the service benefits.