HC reinstates driver sacked for delay that made judge miss train
Bhopal/Jabalpur: A division bench of the
MP high court
has reinstated a Bhopal district court driver who was dismissed from service after arriving late to pick up an Allahabad high court judge, causing the judge to miss his train. He was dismissed from job following a
departmental enquiry
.
The division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf, while hearing the petition of the sacked driver, reinstated the driver in service, holding that the lapse on the part of the driver was not so serious as to warrant his dismissal from service. Vijay Singh Bhadoriya, in his petition, said he was recruited as a driver in the district & sessions court, Bhopal, on daily wages. He was regularised in service in Jan 2004.
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He was deployed in the service of
Justice SK Singh
from Allahabad high court during his Bhopal visit from Nov 10 to 20, 2006. He was supposed to leave Justice Singh at the railway station by car on the intervening night of Nov 19 & 20. He was asked to come to the VIP guest house, where Justice Singh stayed, at 1.30 am but he reached there by 2.15 and Justice Singh missed the train. Justice Singh had made a written complaint against him and charged that he not only came late but he was drunk, too.
Subsequently, he was issued a show cause notice and a departmental enquiry ensued. He was found guilty of professional misconduct and was dismissed. from the service in February, 2007. The petitioner argued that the vehicle in which Justice Singh was to be taken to railway station was parked in Shyamala Hills. When he was going to fetch the car by his cycle, a tyre of the cycle got punctured and he became late in reaching the VIP guest house. Justice Singh had accused him of being drunk but he was not sent for medical examination nor any witness was examined to find out whether he was actually drunk. The court, however, said then railway magistrate, Bhopal, Suresh Singh, in his deposition before the inquiry officer had stated that Justice Singh could not reach the railway station in time because the driver came to the VIP guest house late and he was drunk. The driver has admitted that he came late to the VIP guest house but he refused to accept that he was drunk. Homeguard at the Judges' Enclave at Shyamala Hills Sunil Kumar, who was on duty that night, confirmed that the tyre of his cycle had got punctured.The judges said the high court could only intervene in an order where an employee has been punished for professional misconduct when provisions of law have been violated or the punishment in violation to principles of natural justice. The judges said they agree with the conclusion of the officer who held the DE but the quantum of punishment appears to be disproportionate to his misconduct. They ordered the competent officer to reconsider the volume of punishment within 3 months while reinstating the driver on a "No work, no pay" basis.
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