Satya Narayan Pandit vs State Of Jharkhand And Ors

Heard Counsel for the parties.

The petitioner in this writ application has expressed his grievance against the letter dated 13.04.2007 (Annexure-4), issued by the Block Development Officer, whereby the petitioner's service has been returned to the parent department. The petitioner has prayed for quashing the aforesaid order.

The petitioner has further prayed for a direction upon the respondents to pay him his salary which has been withheld from December 2005 till January 2008, although he has been working as Junior Engineer at Taljhari, Sahibganj continuously.

From the counter affidavit, it appears that the order was passed by the superior authority of the petitioner for withholding the payment of his salary on the ground that the petitioner was found persistently absent from duty. Show cause notices were issued to the petitioner, but he did not chose to file any replies promptly. The belated replies filed by him was not found satisfactory by his superior authority. It appears also that after obtained the due permission from the superior authorities, as per the procedure laid down, the petitioner was repatriated to his parent department.

The petitioner is not able to point out any illegality or arbitrariness in the order of his repatriation.

As regards the petitioner's claim for arrears of salary, there appears to be a disputed question of fact. While the petitioner claims of being regularly present in his duties, counter assertion of the respondents is that the petitioner was found absent from duty. This disputed question of fact cannot be resolved by this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction.

Considering the facts and circumstances, this writ application is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to file a fresh representation before the concerned authority, stating his claim and the grounds in support thereof, and within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the representation, the concerned authorities shall dispose of the same, by recording a reasoned and speaking order and effectively communicate such decision to the petitioner. The concerned authority shall assess the period of petitioner's absence from duty, if any, and consider the possibility of adjusting such period against permissible leave of sanction for the release and grant of payment of admissible arrears of salary to the petitioner.

With these observations, this writ application is disposed of.

Let a copy of this order be given to the counsel for the respondent.