Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation vs Surendrasinh N. Zala

K.S. Jhaveri, J.—This petition is directed against the judgement and award dated 7th February 2004 passed by Labour Court, Bhuj-Kutch in Reference (LCB) No. 3 of 1999 whereby the petitioner was directed to reinstate the respondent with full back wages.

The respondent was serving as conductor with petitioner Corporation. It was found that on 13th January 1996 he had committed irregularity of misappropriation of Rs. 238/-. He was chargesheeted and a departmental inquiry was initiated. At the end of departmental inquiry the services of the respondent came to be dismissed. The respondent filed first departmental appeal which came to be dismissed. Thereafter the respondent raised a dispute which was numbered as Reference (LCB) No. 3 of 1999 and the same came to be allowed as stated hereinabove.

Heard the learned Advocates for the respective parties and perused the relevant record. As a result of this exercise it is found that there are as many as 29 defaults committed by the respondent. It appears that the Labour Court has not considered the documents produced at Exh.13, 16 and 20 which show the serious misconduct on the part of the respondent. Most of the defaults pertain to non-issuance of tickets. The respondent is an employee of public sector and he is dealing with public money. Misuse of public money is a serious misconduct. Therefore, if no punishment is imposed upon the respondent, it would imply that anyone can commit such type of misconduct and can escape without any penalty. Therefore looking to the seriousness of the misconduct I am of the view that imposition of penalty of stoppage of five increments with future effect would meet the ends of justice.

Further, there was no plea nor evidence or proof to show that from the alleged dismissal of his service till the date of the award the respondent was not in gainful employment. Therefore looking to the fact that he was dismissed from service due to the misconduct, I am of the view that there was no justification for grant of back wages, especially when the workman has not worked on the post during the interregnum period.

In the premises aforesaid, the impugned judgement and award qua the back wages is quashed and set aside. A penalty of stoppage of five increments with future effect shall be imposed upon the respondent. The award of the Labour Court is modified accordingly. The award shall be implemented within a period of four months from today. Rule is made absolute accordingly with no order as to costs.