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1. The present writ petition has been filed, inter alia, seeking quashing of appellate order dated 16.08.2012 (Annexure P-8) upholding the major penalty awarded to the petitioner, effecting recovery of Rs. 25,32,817/- from his pay.
2. Brief facts first. The petitioner was working as Godown Assistant at State Warehouse, Chamkaur Sahib at the relevant time. Vide memo dated 22.06.2007 (Annexure P-1) the Managing Director, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) issued charge-sheet to the petitioner, charging him as under:-
21. Apart from the above position, in the present case, the letters 10 of 13 written by the petitioner to the District Manager in June, 2003 pointing out that the wheat was lying on the open plinths on which old covers had been put which cannot save the stocks from rain and storms, have not been denied. The petitioner further requested that fumigation covers had to be obtained from PUNSUP on loan because FCI was addressing for proper preservation of stocks. But the same was not done. In the said letter, the petitioner stated that he could not be held responsible for not providing all the covers as it is very difficult for him to preserve the stocks in open. The petitioner also endorsed his letter dated 17.06.2003 (Annexure P-3 ) to T.O, PSWC at Fatehgarh Sahib requesting him that since the rainy season was about to start and the covers are old and torn out and, therefore, immediate action is required for providing new covers. Despite the persistent pursuit of the petitioner by writing follow up letter dated 03.07.2003, no action was taken by the superiors to provide covers for preserving the stocks lying in the open. In fact, PSWC vide its Circular dated 10.03.1997 by its Quality Control Branch issued certain guidelines regarding storage, which was relied upon by the petitioner in his reply to charge-sheet, which inter alia state as below:
"The open storage was meant initially merely for 3-4 months in order to accommodate the wheat stocks for a short span due to scarcity of space in the covered godowns till the movement of such stocks was arranged by the Government of India. Now the storage period in open is not under the control of the PSWC and is totally dependent on the movement of the stocks which is arranged by the FCI.
v) That in the above regard it may also be stated that while disposing of two writ petitions (No.7285 of 2002 and 7557/03 filed by the Employees Union of Punsup and Markfed Punjab