CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered compulsory retirement of an employee of the Indra Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) located at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, for getting recruited by submitting a forged community certificate.
A division bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and Mohammed Shaffiq passed the orders on a writ petition filed by IGCAR against D Ganesan, scientific assistant. He allegedly applied for the post of trainee in Baba Atomic Research Station, Mumbai, in 1986 by submitting a fake community certificate that showed he belonged to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community, though he belonged to a Backward Community. He did this to gain age relaxation during recruitment.
He was posted as Tradesman/C in BARC in 1989 and was transferred to IGCAR in 1992. However, the SC/ST employees association of the Department of Atomic Energy lodged a complaint against him in 2012; subsequently, he was arrested and placed under suspension.
Contending that disciplinary and criminal proceedings cannot go simultaneously, Ganesan approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which, in 2013, ruled in favour of him. IGCAR filed the writ petition against the CAT order after a gap of seven years.
The bench, in its order, said the respondent is imposed with the punishment of compulsory retirement, which will take effect from Thursday (April 28) and he is entitled to only 40 per cent of the pensionary benefits.
“This court ought not to have granted even this relief to the applicant, had the department approached the court well within time. It is made clear that he is not eligible for any other terminal benefits, such as gratuity, DCRG (death cum retirement gratuity) and the like, excluding the provident fund contribution, if any was made by him,” the order stated. The bench further said the government should also think of amending the rules to enable the department to proceed against the employee even after retirement/superannuation.