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Judgment
By orders dated 30.09.2021, the Captain of Ports has declared that certain periods during which the petitioners were absent will have to be treated as unauthorised absence.
The petitioners have instituted appeals against the said order dated 30.09.2021 to the appellate authority in November 2021.
Till date, the appeals are not disposed of. However, in the meanwhile, the respondents proceeded to make deductions from the petitioners' salaries for the months of April and May 2022. Mr. Vithal Naik submits that the deductions were Rs. 10,000/- each month. He submits that the petitioners draw a salary of approximately Rs. 23,000/- per month after deductions.
According to us, the pendency of an appeal does not operate as an automatic stay. However, the respondents on themselves waited for this long and, therefore, either the appeals could have been expeditiously disposed of or at least the deductions should not have commenced before the disposal of the appeals.
Be that as it may, we now direct the appellate authority to dispose of the pending appeals in accord with law as expeditiously as possible. The petitioners to co-operate with the appellate authority for disposal of the appeals expeditiously. Until the appeals are disposed of and the orders communicated to the petitioners, there should be no further deductions.
With the above directions, we dispose of both these petitions.
All concerned to act on the basis of authenticated copy of this order.