Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 23500 of 2018 Petitioner :- Chandeshwar Prasad Respondent :- Union Of India And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Sharma Counsel for Respondent :- Vikash Chandra Tripathi
Hon'ble Yashwant Varma,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel appearing for the Union respondents.
This petition is directed against the orders dated 23 September 2017 and 31 July 2018.
By the first of the said orders, the respondents have inflicted the punishment of dismissal against the petitioner. The petitioner aggrieved by the said order filed an appeal before the Chief Security Commissioner Railway Board, Gorakhpur on 30 October 2017.This appeal was returned by the authority at Gorakhpur in terms of a communication dated 14 December 2017 informing the petitioner that the appellate authority would be the competent authority posted at the Railway Board at New Delhi.The petitioner thereafter moved the Railway Board New Delhi by way of an appeal dated 04 January 2018. It is this appeal which has been dismissed on the ground that it was barred by time. Learned counsel has referred to the provisions of the Railway Protection Force Rules 1987 and has submitted that the mere fact that the appeal was initially filed before an incorrect authority and under a bona fide mistaken belief that it was the competent authority under the Rules, the appeal could not have been dismissed as being time barred. Learned counsel has also stressed upon the fact that the appeal that was filed in October 2017 was itself returned by the competent authority at Gorakhpur after almost two months on 14 December 2017. In view thereof it was his submission that it cannot be alleged that the petitioner had been negligent in instituting the appeal in question.
Upon this Court prima facie finding substance in the submissions and coming to conclude that the respondents appeared to have taken an extremely narrow and pedantic view, learned counsel for the Union respondents stated that the appellate authority shall be advised to reconsider the appeal of the petitioner on merits notwithstanding the order impugned in this petition.
Accordingly this petition shall stand disposed of with a direction to the competent authority to attend to the appeal preferred by the petitioner and dispose of the same on merits and in accordance with law. This exercise shall be undertaken by the appellate authority notwithstanding the order impugned in this petition which shall no longer survive in light of the statement noted above.
Order Date :- 19.12.2018 faraz