IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE FIFTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION NO : 19299 of 2008 Between: The Commissionr of Employment and Training, A.P., Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND K. Gnana Prakash S/o. Devasahayam H.No.1-6-220/C, Ram Nagar, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENT Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue an appropriate writ on direction more particularly one in the nature of "Writ of Certiorari" calling for the records, relating to and connected with order, dt. 19-6-2008 in O.A.No.1771/2008 on the ﬁle of the Hon'ble APAT, Hyderabad and to quash or set aside the same by holding as erroneous and contrary to law and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:GP FOR SERVICES I Counsel for the Respondent No.: . The Court made the following : HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Writ Petition No.19299 of 2008 ORDER: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed) This writ petition is ﬁled seeking to quash the order dated 19-06-2008 passed in O.A.No.1771 of 2008 on the file of Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad. 2. The respondent–applicant ﬁled the above O.A. challenging the penalty of dismissal from service vide proceedings dated 23-2-2008. The misconduct alleged against the petitioner was that he had not processed the bills in time; he has not aﬃxed the certiﬁcate of stock entry and allowed to pass the bills and the supply orders to the ﬁrms were issued before preparation of comparative statement thereby violating the prescribed procedure. A charge-memo dated 14-09-2000 was issued to the petitioner with the following charges: “CHARGE No.1: The bills numbered from 2451 to 2477, dt. 18-12-97 worth of Rs.19,218/- and bills for Rs.30,189/- number from 23-51 to 2373 (except 2361, 2362 and 2373) dt. 8-10- 97 and bills spread over invoice Nos.2436 to 2444, 2449 and 2554 of December, 1997 pertains to M/s. Bharath Traders, Hyderabad received in 12/97 were not processed in time. The certiﬁcate of DPR entry was aﬃxed without aﬃxing the certiﬁcate of stock entry. NO pass order has been made on the bills by the storekeeper, which is required as per rules. The stores is also not maintained properly. CHARGE NO.II: Supply orders to the ﬁrms have been issued before preparation of the comparative statements, which violates office procedure.” The respondent submitted his explanation to the charge- memo. After the regular departmental enquiry, the Enquiry Oﬃcer submitted report stating that the respondent, along with other delinquent oﬃcers, has violated the Financial Code and procedure. The case of the respondent is that the Enquiry Oﬃcer without examining any witness or document, submitted the report basing on which, a show cause notice dated 06-10-2007 was issued to which he submitted an explanation. The disciplinary authority, after considering the explanation, imposed the penalty of dismissal from service on the respondent, against which he preferred O.A. The Tribunal found that proper charge-memo has not been issued as mandated by Rule 20 of A.P. C.S. (CC&A) Rules before initiation of the disciplinary proceedings and the report did not mention about the misappropriation, and accordingly allowed the O.A. Aggrieved thereby, the Commissioner of Employment and Training, Hyderabad, filed this writ petition. 3. Heard learned Government Pleader for the petitioner and learned counsel for the respondent and perused the record. 4. Learned Government Pleader contended that the charge-memo was issued and explanation was considered and thereafter, the Enquiry Oﬃcer found the respondent guilty of the misconduct and the Tribunal ought not to have held that the charge-memo was not proper. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondent contended that the standard Form-II prescribed under Rule 20 of APCS (CC&A) Rules was not given to the delinquent oﬃcer and the procedure contemplated under the said Rule 20 was not followed, besides the list of witnesses and documents were not furnished along with charge-memo. 5. We have considered the rival submissions made on either side and perused the material on record including impugned order. It appears that there are some defects in conducting the enquiry for the reason that the charge-memo does not contain the speciﬁc charge of misappropriation and that the Enquiry Oﬃcer submitted report without examining the witnesses and documents. This is due to the fact that all the documents were sent to Anti-Corruption Bureau for producing the same in the criminal case. It is thus clear that at the time of enquiry, the entire record was not available with the Enquiry Oﬃcer. Apart from this, the charge-memo was not issued in accordance with Rules and this shows that the respondent was not supplied with the list of witnesses examined and documents relied upon, along with the charge-memo to enable him to defend his case in proper manner. Any violation of the procedure contemplated under Rule 20 would result in prejudice to the delinquent oﬃcer. In the circumstances, we are of the considered view that there is inﬁrmity in conducting of the enquiry against the respondent. 6. Having regard to the facts and circumstances, liberty is given to the petitioner to issue fresh charge-memo with speciﬁc charges against the respondent, in the standard Form-II prescribed under Rule 20 of APCS (CC&A) Rules; examine the witnesses and documents, and furnish a list thereof, to the respondent and thereafter conduct fresh enquiry in accordance with law. This exercise shall be completed within a period of six months from the date of receipt of this order. The impugned order of the Tribunal is accordingly modified. 7. Subject to the above, the writ petition is disposed of at the stage of admission. ___________________________ GHULAM MOHAMMED, J. ________________________ G.BHAVANI PRASAD, J. 05-09-2008 Bsc