IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.2768 of 2009 Date of decision: 11.03.2010 Dhan Singh ....Petitioner versus Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr.Naveen Daryal, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.Siddharth Batra Advocate, and Mr. Ajay Saini, Advocate, for the respondents. ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? Yes. 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? No. 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? No. ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The writ petition challenges the order of recovery of Rs.1,36,156/- from the retiral benefits on the ground that the petitioner had caused loss to the employer by breakages/shortages of the transformer and oil. The grievance of the petitioner is that although the respondents had purported to have waived the value of the alleged breakages/shortages to the extent of 5% and 20% for transformer and oil which reckoned to an amount of Rs.54,000/-. The balance of Rs.1,36,156/- had been deducted without any form of enquiry. It is an admitted fact that no enquiry or charge-sheet had been issued during the Civil Writ Petition No.2768 of 2009 - 2 - period of service of the petitioner. The petitioner has retired from service on 28.02.2006 and the show cause notice itself was issued only subsequent to his retirement. Rule 2.2(b) of the Punjab Civil Services Rules which is applicable, provide for constitution of an enquiry after the retirement only with the permission of the Government for misconduct of an employee which are took place within a period of 4 years. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner states that no such sanction had been obtained and the recovery made, is no in conformity with law. 2. The respondents are not entitled to make any such deduction unilaterally without actually determining the loss alleged to have been caused by the petitioner. Such a determination cannot be done without holding a proper enquiry and giving to the petitioner appropriate opportunity to join the enquiry to show cause that the deduction cannot be done. The impugned deduction made by the respondents is quashed and the respondents are directed to release the amount which is deducted namely Rs.1,36,156/- within a period of 4 weeks with interest at 9% per annum from the date when the amount became payable. Any constitution of an enquiry and its continuance could be only in terms of Rule 2.2(b) of Punjab Civil Service Rules. 3. The writ petition is allowed on the above terms. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 11.03.2010 sanjeev