Jharkhand High Court
State Of Jharkhand And Ors vs Binod Kumar Rana on 27 November, 2013
Author: R. Banumathi
Bench: Chief Justice, Aparesh Kumar Singh
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
L.P.A. No. 340 of 2012
The State of Jharkhand and others ... ... Appellants
Vs.
Binod Kumar Rana ... ... Respondent
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CORAM: HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE APARESH KUMAR SINGH.
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For the Appellants: Mr. Rajesh Kumar, G.P. V
For the Respondent: Mr. A.K. Sahani, Adv.
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Order No. 11 ------ Dated 27th November, 2013
This L.P.A. has been preferred against the order dated 22.06.2012 passed in W.P.(S) No. 7213 of 2006, by which, learned Single Judge quashed the punishment imposed on the respondent i.e. demotion from the post of Executive Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer and also imposing a cost of Rs. 50,000/- to be paid by the appellants to the respondent-petitioner.
2. The respondent was working on the post of Executive Engineer and he was responsible for verifying the work done by the contractor. The charges against the respondent was that he passed the second running bill of Rs. 2,91,371/- without any physical verification, which was in violation of Rule 234 of the Bihar Public Work Accounts Code. An enquiry was conducted against the respondent- petitioner and charge was not proved against the respondent-petitioner. But when it was found that the 2 petitioner had made payment to the contractor without any physical verification, second show cause notice was served upon the petitioner and the punishment of demotion of rank from the post of Executive Engineer to Assistant Engineer was imposed upon the petitioner.
3. Challenging the punishment of demotion from the post of Executive Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer, the petitioner filed the writ petition. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, the learned Single Judge held that there is no allegation of embezzlement, huge financial loss against the petitioner to justify reduction of rank. Learned Single Judge further held that final bill is yet to be prepared and passed and even if more payment is allegedly made in the second running bill, the same may be accounted and adjusted at the time of passing of final bill of the contractor and since there is no evidence against the petitioner justifying his demotion from the post of Executive Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer for those offence, the learned Single Judge quashed the order of demotion from the post of Executive Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer.
4. Challenging the order passed in the writ petition, the appellant-State has preferred this appeal. Learned counsel for the appellant-State, Mr. Rajesh Kumar, submitted that the respondent, who was the Executive Engineer and in-charge of all the divisional work, cannot be supposed to make payment without verification of the work 3 concerned. Learned counsel for the State further submitted that as the appellant made payment without physical verification of the work concerned, learned Single Judge was not right in passing order of making payment to the petitioner. Learned counsel for the State also submitted that other Junior Engineer and Assistant Engineer, who have been charged along with the respondent, have been removed from the service. However, it is an admitted fact that the same was not pleaded before the learned Single Judge. Learned counsel for the State further submitted that order of the learned Single Judge is liable to be set aside.
5. Learned counsel for the respondent submitted that as per Rule 234 of Bihar Public Works Account Code read with Appendix VI, Executive Engineer has to check the measurement recorded in the measurement books on the spot by checking at least 10 per cent of the work before approving final bill and the spot checking was to be done once in a year. The learned counsel further submitted that the payment alleged to have been made is in respect of second running bill when the work was in progress and, therefore, the respondent could not be faulted for making the second running bill.
6. We have considered the submissions of learned counsel for the appellants and the respondent.
7. As per Rule 234 of Bihar Public Works Account Code, Appendix VI, the Executive Engineer has to check the measurement recorded in the measurement books on the 4 spot by checking at least 10 per cent of the work before approving final bill. The charge relates to respondent is of passing the second running bill of Rs. 2,91,371/-, which according to appellant, has been made without proper verification and as rightly pointed out by the learned Single Judge, the final bill is yet to be prepared and passed and even if more payment, as alleged, is made by the respondent for second running bill, the same may be adjusted at the time of passing final bill of the contractor. The learned Single Judge also pointed out that the appellant could not find out any material to assess that the respondent was responsible for passing second running bill without there being any work done on the spot by the contractor since there is always a chance of making more amount and adjusting the same at the time of passing final bill of the contractor. The charges are not so grave in nature to attract imposition of major punishment, reduction from the post of Executive Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer. It is also pointed out that the enquiry officer in his report has held the charges levelled against the respondent are not proved. In the facts and circumstances, we do not find any merit warranting interference with the order of learned Single Judge quashing punishment imposed on the respondent.
8. The learned Single Judge by allowing the writ petition, has imposed a cost of Rs. 50,000/- to be paid by the appellants to the respondent which, in our considered view, 5 is not justified in the facts and circumstances of the case. The order of imposition of cost of Rs. 50,000/- is set aside and this L.P.A. is partly allowed to that extent.
Consequently, Interlocutory Application is closed.
(R. Banumathi, C.J.) (Aparesh Kumar Singh, J) Alankar/Sudhir-