Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

34.On perusal of the records reveals that the Petitioner/Corporation failed to examine the passenger witness or any other independent witness. The checking teams of the Petitioner/Corporation failed to tally the cash with the unpunched tickets. This court in Savitri Devi v. Delhi Transport Corporation, reported as 2011 SCC OnLine Del 3507 has discussed briefly about importance of checking cash by the checking staff. Relevant extract of the judgment is produced below for perusal.

"14. ...The Tribunal appears to have overlooked that in a majority of the cases where the charges are that after collecting cash from the passengers the conductor has not issued them tickets, the checking of the cash with the conductor is absolutely essential to determine if the passengers who were allegedly travelling without tickets were telling the truth..."

16. Learned Counsel for the Appellant has further stated that the learned Single Judge has ignored the fact that there was an admission on the part of the Workman. The Workman has signed the challans which were prepared by the checking staff and also gave an unpunched ticket. The statement of passengers was also recorded, and, therefore, there was no occasion to give the clean chit to the Workman by the Labour Court nor by the learned Single Judge.

"I have carefully seen the entire case file and the document available on it and have come to the conclusion that all the charges mentioned in the charge sheet against the delinquent are found proved. Prosecution witness has clarified that on 31.8.1992, while standing standing at Gurukul Sarai Stand bus No.9115 arrived and Passengers alighting from the bus were checked in which two passengers without ticket also alighted and when we asked him about the tickets, the group leader said that they paid Rs.5/- to the conductor for two tickets from Ashram to Gurukul Sarai but the. conductor did not issue any tickets to us after taking the due fare" and allowed to get down from the bus. The conductor got confronted with the passengers and written statement of group leader was taken. On this the conductor admitted bis fault and signed on the document and submitted two unpunched tickets of the value of Rs.2.50 each. In the case file the statement of passenger are available and conductor's signature is also available on it and unpunched ticket No.00/97757 and 97758 for the value of Rs.2.50 each is also - available which was given by the delinquent to the checking staff in lieu of the fare taken by him. Reasoning of the delinquent by way of final closing statement that just for checking purpose the checking staff took his hand bloc and taken out unpunched ticket and took his signature on blank paper after threatening him is an after · thought story of him because if there was any truth in the statement of the delinquent· then he would have immediately informed the competent authority within the stipulated period after the challan. Beside this, the justification given by the delinquent in his reply to the chargesheet that the charges leveled in the chargesheet are fictitious and baseless, does not sound logical.