Prayagraj. Allahabad High Court has said that after retirement of an employee, he is no longer an employee. Therefore, departmental inquiry cannot be conducted against him as per rules after retirement. With this comment, the court cancelled the recovery order of Rs 27,21,930.26 by the Managing Director against a retired employee from State Warehousing Corporation, Fatehpur. It said, the legal process was not followed in the departmental inquiry.
The petitioner was not given a chance to give evidence and be heard and on the basis of a one-sided investigation report, the recovery order was issued by removing him from service. The court refused to accept the argument of senior advocate OP Singh of State Warehousing Corporation that the case should be sent back to the department for regular investigation because the departmental inquiry was started before the retirement of the petitioner and he was punished later.
The court said, if after retirement the petitioner is no longer an employee of the corporation, then how can a departmental inquiry be conducted against him? This order has been given by Justice Ajit Kumar while partially accepting the petition of Sundarlal, who was a storage assistant.
Petitioner’s advocate Ashutosh Tripathi said that in the departmental inquiry, no date was fixed by the investigating officer for oral evidence. He was not given a chance to explain. The reply to the charge sheet was not considered. No reason was given for being dissatisfied with the reply. The legal process was not followed in the inquiry. The petitioner was not allowed to participate in the inquiry and the report was given.
Regulation 16 (3) was not followed. The corporation’s advocate accepted this flaw and said that the department should be given a chance to investigate again. The court did not consider it appropriate and cancelled the recovery order issued by the Managing Director on 24 October 2016.
