IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.7842 of 2010 Date of Decision : May 03, 2010. Raj Kumar Gupta .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.N.S.Bhinder, Advocate, for the petitioner. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner retired from the post of Senior Assistant-cum- Storekeeper in the Department of Printing and Stationary, Government of Punjab, w.e.f. 30.9.2008. Before his retirement, the petitioner was subjected to disciplinary action and a regular departmental enquiry was held. Though the Enquiry Officer vide his enquiry report (Annexure P-4) exonerated the petitioner, however, the Competent Authority disagreed with those findings and served the petitioner with a show cause notice dated 25.9.2009 (Annexure P-6) proposing recovery of Rs.1,14,401/- from him. Aggrieved, the petitioner has approached this Court with two-fold grievance, namely, that the show cause notice is without any legal basis and that his retiral benefits have been arbitrarily with-held. C.W.P.No .7842 of 2010 2 Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner at some length, I am of the considered view that since the Competent Authority has served the petitioner with a show cause notice based upon the self- contained reasons, he is obligated to submit his reply or explanation in response thereto. However, the petitioner appears to be right in contending that there is no legal basis to with-hold his retiral dues when the amount allegedly recoverable from him is only to the tune of Rs.1,14,401/-. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to submit his reply to the show cause notice dated 25.9.2009 (Annexure P-6) within a period of one month from today which shall be considered and disposed of in accordance with law by respondent No.2 preferably within a period of three months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order and after affording an opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioner. Meanwhile, the respondents are directed to release all the retiral dues to the petitioner except that an amount of Rs.1,14,401/- will be with-held out of the gratuity of the petitioner till the finalization of the disciplinary proceedings. Disposed of. Dasti. May 03, 2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE