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34. That accordingly a request has been sent to Central Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the Bank to forward the matter on 23.04.2019 to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) seeking their first stage. The advice of CVC is still awaited.” The Disciplinary Authority/Executive Director of the Respondent Bank (hereinafter referred to as, “Executive Director”) submitted personal affidavit dated 13th June, 2019 before the High Court, inter alia, stating that the matter was  referred to the CVC, and the charge sheet would be issued to the appellant on receipt of the CVC’s advice. The relevant extract of the Executive Director’s affidavit is as follows:

17. We have already quoted the relevant parts of the Circulars dated 28th September 2000, 15th April 2004 and 27th April 2015 issued by the CVC. As can be seen from the Circulars, the CVC is being consulted at two stages for its advice. The first stage advice is sought before the issuance of the charge sheet, and the second stage advice is either on receipt of the reply to the charge sheet or on receipt of the enquiry report. As can be seen from the affidavit dated 23rd May 2019, filed by the General Manager of the Bank, the first stage advice of the CVC has been sought. The affidavit dated 13th June 2019 filed by the Executive Director also clearly states that on the receipt of the advice of the CVC, the Bank shall issue a charge sheet to the appellant. As stated earlier, within five days of filing the said affidavit, the charge sheet dated 10th June 2019 was served upon the appellant. This was done without receiving the first stage advice from the CVC.

19. Thus, the respondent-Bank accepted that Regulation 19 of the 1976 Regulations was applicable and therefore, first- stage advice of the CVC was sought. Even before getting the first stage advice, on 10th June 2019, the charge sheet was kept ready which was served upon the appellant on 18 th June 2019. In this case, the Respondent Bank itself accepted the necessity of seeking first-stage advice from the CVC. Therefore, it was not open for the Bank to serve the charge sheet without receiving and considering the first stage advice by the CVC.

20. As stated earlier, only ten months before the date of superannuation, an order of suspension was served upon the appellant. This was done after 34 years of unblemished service. Although it was necessary to take the first stage advice of the CVC, the advice was sought only as late as on 17th May 2019. Twelve days before reaching the age of superannuation, a charge sheet was served upon the appellant, without receiving and considering the CVC’s advice. This was despite the specific statement made by the Executive Director in the earlier petition on oath, which stated that the charge sheet would only be served upon receipt of advice from the CVC.