John Philip M. vs NTPC Ltd. and Another

R.S. Jha, J.—The petitioner has filed this petition being aggrieved by memo dated 06.04.2013 issued to the petitioner by which certain charges have been levelled against the petitioner and a departmental enquiry in respect of the said charges is proposed to be initiated against the petitioner by appointing an enquiry officer. The learned senior counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner while in service obtained permission from the respondents/authorities for pursuing a two year course in MBA from Vaishali Institute of Business and Rural Management, Muzaffarpur, Bihar. It is submitted that after obtaining permission from the respondents/authorities the said course was taken up. The petitioner obtained the aforesaid qualifications on the basis of which an incentive bonus of Rs. 4800/- was given to the petitioner in accordance with the scheme of the respondents. It is submitted that subsequently the petitioner has been given promotions in the year 2003 and thereafter in the year 2006 and now as Senior Manager in the year 2009.

It is submitted by the learned senior counsel for the petitioner that subsequently on account of some complaint being made in respect of suppression of facts by the petitioner, information was sought by the respondents from the concerned educational institution and thereafter after a long lapse of more than 18 years the respondents/authorities have issued a charge sheet to the petitioner on 06.04.2013.

The learned senior counsel for the petitioner submits that the educational qualification was obtained after due permission from the authorities and the certificates obtained by the petitioner were also produced before the authorities which were duly scrutinized and the authorities had full knowledge about the entire matter and on the basis of which the petitioner was granted promotions from time to time and therefore, after a long lapse of 18 years the departmental enquiry cannot be permitted to be initiated against the petitioner on account of some anonymous complaint as that would seriously prejudice the rights of the petitioner.

Having heard the learned senior counsel for the petitioner, it is observed that the charges levelled against the petitioner relate to suppression of fact for obtaining the educational qualification as well as misleading the authorities regarding the nature of the educational qualifications.

It is settled law that issuance of charge sheet does not give rise to any cause of action and that the veracity and correctness of the charges cannot be gone into by this Court under Articles 226 /227 of the Constitution of India at the very initial stage of issuance of the charge sheet. The present case is not one of admitted fact where any opinion could be given by this court.

In the circumstances, as it is stated that the petitioner has yet to file a reply to the charge sheet, the petition filed by the petitioner is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to take up all possible objections before the disciplinary authority by filing a fresh representation. It goes without saying that in case the petitioner does so along with a copy of the order passed today and a copy of the petition within 15 days from the date of obtaining a certified copy, the authority concerned shall consider the same during the enquiry and take a decision in that regard also.

With the aforesaid observations, the petition filed by the petitioner stands disposed of. C.C. as per rules.