Manoj H.Mishra vs Union Of India & Ors

14th October, 1993. Thereafter, on 17th December, 1993, he was elected as General Secretary of the recognized Union of Class III and Class IV of KAPP, called Kakarapar Anumathak Karamchari Sangthan. It is the claim of the appellant that until his resignation from the primary membership of the aforesaid Union on 22nd September, 1995 at the instance of the Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation (respondent No.2), he acted as the General Secretary of the Union. He was a popular Union leader who always won elections with more than 3/4th majority. On 3rd May, 1994, he was declared a protected workman along with others. He claims that as the General Secretary of the Union, he was very active and always made extra efforts to see that the genuine demands of the members of the Union are accepted by the respondents. As a representative of the Union, he was regularly in contact with the Station Director, KAPP (respondent No.4). As a consequence of the Union activities, the relationship of the appellant with respondent No.4 were sour. The appellant, however, maintained working relationship with the respondents. It is also the claim of the appellant that during the monsoon season, there was heavy rain during the night of 15th June, 1994 and water at Kakarapar Dam had risen beyond the danger level. As a result, the Dam authorities had to open the flood gates. In normal circumstances, Kakarapar lake would receive the Dam water through a canal which is an interlink. The water of the lake is used by the respondents’ authorities for power generation. However, on the night of 15th July, 1994, it was the flood water, which entered in the Kakarapar lake and within no time it had also entered into the plant. Before the next morning, more than 25 feet of the turbine which is adjacent to the Nuclear reactors was submerged under water. In fact, the entire record room and computer room were washed away. That apart, some of the barrels containing nuclear wastes were also washed away by the flood water. On 16th July, 1994, the respondent authorities declared an emergency, and started taking preventive measures.

5. It is the claim of the appellant that questions were being raised by many people as to why and how the flood water could not be prevented from entering into the turbines and other areas of the plant. Therefore on 18th June, 1994, the appellant wrote a letter to the Editor, Gujarat Samachar, Surat narrating in the Gujarati language about the aforesaid incident. A translated copy of the letter has been placed at Annexure: P1 to the Special Leave Petition and reads as under :-

6. The appellant points out that he did not disclose any official information which he could have received during his official duty. He claims that the facts narrated in the letter were of public knowledge and a matter of public concern. This is evident from the fact that every newspapers, politicians, members of legislative assembly and other citizens expressed their concern regarding the safety of the nuclear project and as to how the said incident could have happened. The appellant had narrated the facts relating to the water logging so that in future this type of incident may not occur. The appellant relies on a newspaper Anumukti dated 22nd June, 1994 entitled “Paying the Price for Honesty and Courage”. This article points out that although mercifully no great disaster took place the event did highlight the lax attitude towards safety of the nuclear power plant authorities. The article points out some of the glaring irregularities. After pointing out the irregularities, the article concludes:-

12. In view of the aforesaid admission, the Enquiry Officer closed the enquiry proceedings. The charges were held to be proved against the appellant. Acting on the aforesaid enquiry report by order dated 30th March, 1996, the Disciplinary Authority ordered the removal of the appellant from service of KAPP w.e.f. afternoon of 30th March, 1996. The appellant was informed that an appeal lies against the aforesaid order with the Station Director, KAPP within a period of 45 days from the date of the issue of the order. The appeal filed by the appellant was dismissed. The appellant thereafter preferred a revision application before respondent No. 3, which was also dismissed.

13. The appellant challenged the aforesaid order by way of a Special Civil Application No. 2115 of 1997. The aforesaid writ petition was dismissed by learned Single Judge. The appellant preferred LPA No. 1041 of 2007 against the aforesaid judgment of the learned Single Judge, which was dismissed by the Division Bench on 14th July, 2009. All these orders have been challenged before this Court in the present appeal.

23. On 18th June, 1994, at about 11.30 a.m., the appellant telephoned the pass section of CISF and told Mr. A. Srikrishna, CISF Constable, that a person asking for him will come to pass section. The Constable was told to tell the person to wait for the appellant. After the press reporter arrived, the appellant met him in his official quarters. Thereafter, the appellant wrote the letter to the Daily Gujarat Newspaper having the largest circulation in Gujarat. Relying on the aforesaid, the newspaper published the news. Soon thereafter on 22nd June, 1994, another news story appeared in Gujarat Samachar with the title that “Half of Gujarat would have exploded on June 15”. In this news story, it was stated that “at the same time chances of an accident damaging not only Surat district but, the whole of Gujarat and being totally demolished within seconds have been saved”. According to Mr. Parekh, the aforesaid story contained false and defamatory allegations of “blatant corruption going on in the organization”. It gave false and distorted and inflammatory information about the Project, raising serious doubts about the safety and security of the Nuclear Power Plant. The aforesaid news story was capable of creating extreme panic among the public of Gujarat. After satisfying himself with the safety situations, the District Collector in his capacity as Director of Site Emergency Plan of KAPS gave a press release to that effect. Similarly, the Station Director also issued a press release to diffuse the panic situation created by the news item released by the appellant in his own name and signature. These clarifications were published in the Gujarat Samachar on 23rd June, 1994. On 5th July, 1994, respondent No. 2 appointed a Committee to investigate the role of the appellant behind the aforesaid media reports. Based on the preliminary reports, the Disciplinary Authority placed the appellant under suspension, in contemplation of disciplinary proceedings to be initiated against him for major penalty. The statement of imputation of misconduct of misbehaviour in support of charges were served on the appellant on 4th August, 1994. An Inquiry Officer was appointed on 26th December, 1994. At the primary hearing in the enquiry, the appellant denied all the charges. His choice of Mr. P.B. Sharma as Defense Assistant was accepted. He was given inspection of all the documents, he was also asked to submit his list of witnesses. The appellant had stated that the list of witnesses would be submitted after consulting his Defense Assistant. On 9th October, 1995, the hearing of the inquiry was adjourned on the ground that the appellant had submitted an appeal to NPCIL. On 20th December, 1995, the appellant admitted all the charges leveled against him in toto and accordingly the inquiry was closed on such admission of the charges.

37. We see no merit in the appeal and the same is hereby dismissed.

April 09, 2013.