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Judgment
Rekha Sharma, J.—This writ-petition has been preferred against the order of the Labour Court dated December 18, 2006 upholding the removal of the Petitioner from service by the Respondent vide its order dated August 16, 2001 on the ground that he had remained absent from duty for 72 days without any sanctioned leave.
The Petitioner does not dispute that he had remained absent for the aforesaid period without sanctioned leave. His only submission is that despite his having remained absent, the Enquiry Officer had not found him guilty and that the order passed by the Enquiry Officer dated June 26, 2001 was interpolated, in as much as two lines were subsequently added in the order. Those lines read as under:
Conductor has taken leave. Therefore, he is found guilty.
I have gone through the order of the Enquiry Officer dated June 26, 2001. All that he has stated in the order is that "I have come to the conclusion that whatever leave delinquent has taken is on account of the illness of his wife. It is true that his wife is ill." The conclusion so arrived at by the Enquiry Officer cannot be interpreted to mean that he had condoned the absence of the Petitioner from duty without sanctioned leave. He has simply recorded a fact that the Petitioner had taken leave on account of the illness of his wife. Therefore, to say that the Enquiry Officer has not found him guilty, will not be the correct way of looking at the order, even if, it is assumed that the subsequent lines in the order, as alleged by the Petitioner, were added after the Enquiry Officer had given his finding.
Apart from what has been noticed above, I find that the writ-petition is liable to be dismissed on delay and laches. The impugned order against the Petitioner was passed on December 18, 2006. It is after five years in the year 2011 that he has challenged the same. There is no explanation as to why the writ-petition has been filed after lapse of such a long time.
For the fore-going reasons, there is no merit in the writ-petition. The same is dismissed.