Punjab State Through The Secretary, ... vs Anil Kumar on 23 November, 2001
In my opinion, the ratio of the decisions of the Supreme Court in State of U.P. and Ors. v. Krishan Kumar Sharma (supra) and State of U.P. v. Prem Lata Mishra (supra), the first part of the propositions laid down in R.S.Gupta v. Union of India (supra) and principles No. (i) and (ii) laid down in Sher Singh v. State of Haryana (supra) are fully applicable to the case in hand. Therefore, it must be held that termination of the service of the respondent by way of discharge under Rule 12.21 of the Rules was not stigmatic or punitive and the Courts below committed a serious illegality by declaring the same to be punitive merely because in the written statement, reference had been made to the respondent's absence from duty on two occasions.