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Your action described above amounts to grave misconduct, gross negligence, dereliction of duty, disobedience of orders, clear violation of standing instructions detrimental to the interest of this Corporation which tantamounts to unsatisfactory performance on your part.

If nothing is received within the stipulated time, action will be proceeded with on the presumption that you have no defence in this case and your services will be terminated as laid down in Clause 2 of the reference first cited.

Shri L.Nageshwara Rao, learned Senior Counsel for the appellant urged that although the order of termination of services appears to be innocuous and simpliciter but foundation for passing the said order was alleged misconduct of the appellant; serious allegations of misconduct are made in the show-cause notice which constitute ground for termination of services as in the order of termination of services, reference is made to the said show-cause notice; there is nothing to indicate in the order of termination of services that any distinction was made between the allegations of misconduct and mere failure of the appellant in performing the duties. He submitted that the learned Single Judge as well as the Division Bench of the High Court have exceeded power of judicial review in correcting the order of termination of services to sustain it by giving certain directions to delete paras 4 and 5 of the order of termination of services.
"In the said circumstances, I am not inclined to interfere with the order of stated in the show cause notice to the effect that petitioner has colluded with the suppliers for undue pecuniary benefits, they should frame proper charge and conduct proper enquiry following the procedure down in departmental proceedings. If the Corporation withdraws the said charge, no enquiry need be conducted and the order would stand."

Before the Division Bench, the principal contention advanced on behalf of the appellant was that the order of termination stigmatized the appellant and the said order should have been preceded by a full- fledged inquiry. The Division Bench of the High Court, after considering the respective contentions and looking to the records, held that the termination has been ordered not as a penalty for any misconduct but for his unsatisfactory service during his tenure as a probationer. Dealing with the contention as to the allegations of misconduct stated in show-cause notice, the Division Bench of the High Court held thus:-

From long line of decisions it appears to us whether an order of termination is simplicitor or punitive has ultimately to be decided having due regard to the facts and circumstances of each case. Many a times the distinction between the foundation and motive in relation to an order of termination either is thin or overlapping. It may be difficult either to categorize or classify strictly orders of termination simplicitor falling in one or the other category, based on misconduct as foundation for passing the order of termination simplicitor or on motive on the ground of unsuitability to continue in service. If the form and language of the order of termination simplicitor of a probationer clearly indicate that it is punitive in nature or/and it is stigmatic there may not be any need to go into the details of the background and surrounding circumstances in testing whether the order of termination is simplicitor or punitive. In cases where the services of a probationer are terminated by an order of termination simplicitor and the language and form of it do not show that either it is punitive or stigmatic on the face of it but there may be a background and attending circumstances to show that misconduct was the real basis and design to terminate the services of a probationer. In other words, the facade of the termination order may be simplicitor but the real face behind it is to get rid of services of a probationer on the basis of misconduct. In such cases it becomes necessary to travel beyond the order of termination simplicitor to find out what in reality is the background and what weighed with the employer to terminate the services of a probationer. In that process it also becomes necessary to find out whether efforts were made to find out the suitability of the person to continue in service or he is in reality removed from service on the foundation of his misconduct.