IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.20105 of 2011 Date of Decision : November 01, 2011. Balwant Singh .....Petitioner versus The Presiding Officer, Industrial Tribunal & Labour Court, U.T. Chandigarh and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.S.S.Bains, 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 seeks quashing of the Award dated 27.4.2011/17.6.2011 (Annexure P-3) passed by the Industrial Tribunal- cum-Labour Court, Chandigarh whereby the reference as to whether the services of the petitioner were terminated illegally by the Management of the Transport Department, State of Haryana, has been answered against him. Briefly stated, the petitioner was Diesel Pump Attendant in the Transport Department, Haryana and was posted in the Haryana Roadways Workshop at Chandigarh on 28.12.1986. He was charge-sheeted, inter-alia, alleging mis-appropriation of the Diesel from workshop. The petitioner CWP No.20105 of 2011 [2] submitted his reply to the charge-sheet which was found unsatisfactory, hence the General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Chandigarh was appointed as the Enquiry Officer. The Enquiry Officer, vide report dated 16.6.1988 found the petitioner guilty of charges and came to the conclusion that the petitioner supplied 120 liters diesel to a bus but issued only one docket, thereby showing double supply and thus misappropriated the Government property. The petitioner was served with a show cause notice alongwith the enquiry report and it was after a long duration that the State Transport Commissioner, Haryana, terminated services of the petitioner on 22.1.1997 by way of punishment. The petitioner preferred a departmental appeal which was also turned down by the Appellate Authority on 29.6.1999. The petitioner raised an industrial dispute after about five years vide demand notice dated 27.3.2004 which has been answered against him by the Labour Court vide the impugned Award. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner at some length and perused the records. Two fold contentions have been raised on behalf of the petitioner. Firstly, it is urged that the Enquiry Officer was biased and a request to change the Enquiry Officer was made at the earliest but the Disciplinary Authority paid no heed. This fact was allegedly disclosed in the demand notice also and was again raised before the Labour Court who has returned no finding causing severe prejudice to the petitioner. Secondly, it is claimed that actually no shortage of diesel was ever found. In my considered opinion, the twin contentions have no legal CWP No.20105 of 2011 [3] or factual basis and are liable to be rejected. I say so for the reason that mere bald assertion by a delinquent employee attributing bias to the Enquiry Officer cannot be accepted unless substantiated with instances of actual bias or likely of an extent that it would cause prejudice to the employee. No such instance has been mentioned by the petitioner in the demand notice nor he has led any evidence in support of the allegation. It is a general tendency for an employee to delay the proceedings by raising one or the other objections/technicalities and if the Enquiry Officer refuses to be trapped, he is oftenly attributed malice or bias. Be that as it may, in the absence of any proof or evidence, the Labour Court has rightly discarded the above stated plea. The second contention that there was no shortage of diesel cannot be accepted for the obvious reason that firstly a categorical finding of fact to this effect has been returned by the Enquiry Officer which was accepted by the Disciplinary Authority as well as the Appellate Authority and secondly, the Labour Court has also accepted such finding and returned a concurrent finding of fact which calls for no interference by this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction. Dismissed. November 01, 2011 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE