The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed the plea of a railway employee removed from service on charges of forgery, seeking full pension and other financial benefits.
The petitioner, S Stalin, a train examiner in Tiruchy division of the Railways, was issued a charge memo on June 15, 2005 stating that on April 3, 2002 he had forged the signature of one A Aruldoss in the surety column of a loan application. The petitioner had initially denied the charge. After an inquiry, in 2006 charges against the petitioner had been proved.
Hearing the plea, the Bench comprising Justices N Paul Vasantha Kumar and P Devadass said that if the contention of the petitioner was accepted, it would have a disastrous effect - a government / railway servant can commit any act of moral turpitude and plead that the said act was committed not during the discharge of duty.