IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. CASE NO.: CWP No.19333 of 2007 DATE OF DECISION : August 14,2008 MAGGAR SINGH .......PETITIONER. VERSUS JOINT REGISTRAR COOP. SOCIETIES (P), PUNJAB AND OTHERS. ......RESPONDENTS CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE NIRMALJIT KAUR. Present: Mr. M.S. Bedi, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Ashwani Prashar, Advocate for the respondent(s). NIRMALJIT KAUR, J. The challenge, in this writ petition, is to the Termination Order dated 08-06-2002, passed by respondent No.3 and the Appellate Order dated 02-02-2005, passed by Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Moga, dismissing his appeal and the Order dated 05-06-2006, passed by the Joint Registrar (Planning) Cooperative Societies, vide which, even the Revision Petition was dismissed. The petitioner has since challenged the above orders, basically on the following four grounds :- (i) That the petitioner has been terminated from service without associating in the enquiry & supply of the enquiry report, and without giving the show cause notice as required under the service rules. CWP No.19333 of 2007 -2- (ii)That even the copy of the termination order has not been supplied after terminating him from service vide resolution dated 08-06-2002 which was required to supply immediately. (iii)That the petitioner has been terminated on the ground that he has not comply with the directions given by the committee whereas no surcharge has been framed in the charge sheet. (iv)That the petitioner had already handed over the record to the society and it was so stated before the Addl. Registrar in a case pending before him filed by the petitioner against the society for non-paying the subsistence allowance to the petitioner. After hearing the counsel for the parties, we do not agree with the contention of the petitioner and the same deserves to be dismissed. The petitioner, in fact, has not disclosed and concealed the relevant facts. The contentions of the petitioner are, therefore, incorrect. The written statement has been filed by respondent No.3. No replication was filed to the averments made in the written statement. From the perusal of the same, it is clear that in fact, the petitioner was issued a charge sheet dated 20-02-2002 through Registered post as well as U.P.C. in which, the charges levelled against the petitioner were : (1) Non production of the record of the Society; (2) Non handing over of the charge of the godown of the society to the Society; (3) Causing loss to the members of the Society;(4) causing hindrance in the recovery of the Society; and (5) dragging the society into unnecessary litigation. This charge sheet was duly received by the petitioner and he submitted reply to the same. Thereafter, a three members sub committee was constituted to CWP No.19333 of 2007 -3- look into the charges levelled against the petitioner vide resolution dated 03-04-2002. The petitioner was also intimated regarding the same that there will be a meeting on 15-04-2002. A copy of the communication duly received by the petitioner was placed on record as Annexure R-3/2/1. In spite of receiving the notice, the petitioner did not attend the proceedings on 15-04-2002. Thereafter the meeting of the Managing Committee was fixed for 03-05-2002 and the petitioner was informed through post and publication was also made in the vernacular newspaper Daily Nawan Jamana on 30-04-2002. A copy of the notice published on 30-04-2002 is attached with the written statement as Annexure R-3/3/1. Instead of joining the inquiry proceedings, the petitioner wrote a letter dated 02-05-2002 to the President of the Society and in the last para of this letter he has mentioned that the inquiry which is going to be conducted on 03-05-2002 and in which he has been asked to come present is illegal. This leaves no manner of doubt that the petitioner was in the knowledge of the inquiry being conducted into the charge sheet. A copy of letter dated 02.05.2002 written by the petitioner to the President of the Society and the same is placed on record as Annexure R-3/4/1. That the three members committee submitted the inquiry report to the President of the Society on 04.05.2002 in which out of the five charges, charge no.1 and 2 were proved and charge no.3 and 4 were not proved against the petitioner. As regards charge no.5 is concerned, it was held that he was guilty of dragging the society into unnecessary litigation.That a copy of the inquiry report was sent to the petitioner through registered post and the same was delivered to him on 09.05.2002. A certificate to this effect issued by the Customer CWP No.19333 of 2007 -4- Care Centre, Faridkot, Department of Posts, India is attached as Annexure R-3/6 to this written statement. Thereafter, a Show Cause Notice dated 21.05.2002 was also issued to the petitioner through registered post. A copy of Show Cause notice and the receipt is Annexure R-3/7/1.This Show Cause Notice was also published in the Desh Sewak newspaper. The same is also on record. The Customer Care Centre, Faridkot, Department of Posts India has also issued a certificate that the registered letter No.096 was delivered to the petitioner on 27.05.2002. A copy of the certificate is R-3/9. In the meeting of the Managing Committee held on 08.06.2002, the petitioner did not come present and thus the Managing Committee of the Society dismissed the petitioner from the service of the Society. A copy of order of dismissal was sent to the petitioner vide registered letter No.316 dated 17.06.2002. Then, a request was made to the post office in-charge Rajowal on 01.09.2002 to ascertain whether the postal registry was delivered or not. On this application itself, it was endorsed by the postal authorities that registry no.316 dated 17.06.2002 has not been received back and has been delivered. A copy of application dated 01.09.2002 along with endorsement given by the post office is Annexure R-3/10/1. Thereafter, the petitioner challenged his dismissal order which was dismissed by respondent No.2 vide order dated 02-02-2005. Even the Revision Petition against the order dated 02-02-2005 was dismissed by respondent No.1. There is a concurrent findings by the authorities that the Inquiry Committee issued notice to the petitioner, informed him through the newspapers but he did not appear before the Committee. Copy of the CWP No.19333 of 2007 -5- Inquiry Report was also sent to the petitioner, which is evident from the certificate issued by the Customer Care Centre, Department of Posts-India, annexed as R-3/6. Thereafter, a Show Cause Notice was also issued through newspaper. Before passing the order of termination, the copy of the order of dismissal was also sent to the petitioner vide Registered Letter No.316 dated 17-06-2002. Hence, no illegality can be found in the procedure adopted by the Society and the orders passed by respondents No.1, 2 and 3. Thus, the contention of the petitioner is found to be incorrect and his services were terminated after holding proper enquiry, granting proper opportunity and after complying with all the requirements of natural justice. The last argument raised by the counsel for the petitioner was that his suspension order was passed by the Vice President, Surjit Singh Brar, who was not competent to do so under the Rules. A perusal of the suspension order shows that in fact, he was placed under the suspension vide Resolution dated 17-09-2001 passed by the Managing Committee and the Vice President had simply informed him of the same. Thus, the argument of the petitioner cannot be accepted. No other arguments has been raised. In view of the above, the Writ Petition is, accordingly, dismissed. (NIRMALJIT KAUR) JUDGE (ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA) JUDGE August 14,2008 gurpreet