Court No. - 7
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 35432 of 2000 Petitioner :- Ishwar Dayal Singh Respondent :- D.I.O.S. And Anr. Counsel for Petitioner :- D.K. Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Anil Bhushan,K C Vishwakarma
Hon'ble Surya Prakash Kesarwani,J.
Heard Sri D.K. Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri S.P. Singh, learned Standing Counsel for the State- respondents.
This writ petition has been filed praying for the following relief:
"i. issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of writ of certiorari quashing the impugned order of dismissal dated 12/9/1973.
ii. issue a writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the present circumstances of the case.
iii. to award cost to the petitioner".
Briefly stated facts of the present case are that the petitioner was appointed as Assistant Clerk in July 1964 in Swami Gobindashram Inter College, Mirzapur. He was dismissed from service by order dated 12.9.1973. A first information report was lodged against him on 15.11.1973. He faced the criminal trial and he was acquitted by the trial court by judgment dated 17.11.1983. The petitioner had filed Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.26570 of 1992, which was dismissed by order dated 27.7.1999 as under :
"Heard counsel for the petitioner Shri B.N. Chaturvedi and Shri Ashok Bhushan learned counsel appearing for respondent no.2 and Shri C.P. Gupta learned standing counsel appearing for respondent no.1.
The petitioner was appointed as Assistant Clerk in July 1964 in Swami Gobindasram Inter College, Mirzapur.
The respondents by order dated 12.9.73 dismissed the petitioner from service. The petitioner has challenged the termination order on the grouond that subsequent to the dismissal order, the respondents lodged F.I.R. on 15.11.73 on the basis of which the criminal case was registered against the petitioner. In the criminal trial the petitioner has been acquitted by judgment dated 17.11.83. After his acquittal from the criminal case in the year 1983 the petitioner approached the authorities but since nothing was done he filed the instant writ petition in which a direction was given on 23.7.92 to the respondents for deciding the representation of the petitioner. The representation of the petitioner has been rejected by the respondents on 1.3.93, a copy of which has been filed alongwith counter affidavit as Annexure- CA-1.
It is not disputed that the petitioner is out of service from 1973. Since the petitioner did not challenge dismissal order for about 19 years before this Court, the petitioner is guilty of latches and no relief can be granted to him in this writ petition. The argument of the counsel for the petitioner that since the petitioner was implicated in the criminal charge and he could not challenge the order of dismissal as he could have challenged the order of dismissal only after acquittal in criminal case.
I am not inclined to accept the submission of counsel for the respondents that the pendency of criminal case, the delay in filing the writ petition should condoned. It is clear that the petitioner was dismissed in 1973 prior to the criminal proceedings initiated against him. The petitioner was not dismissed on the basis of first information report. Further he was acquitted in 1983 by criminal court but even then he did not challenge the dismissal order before this Court. The petitioner is guilty of latches. Therefore, this writ petition is liable to be dismissed on the ground of latches.
For the reasons given above, the writ petition fails and it is accordingly dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs."
From the facts aforenoted, it is clear that the petitioner has challenged the impugned order of dismissal from service dated 12.9.1973, after about 27 years. Earlier, Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.26570 of 1992 filed by him, was dismissed on the ground of latches taking note of the order of dismissal from service dated 12.9.1973. No acceptable explanation has been offered by the petitioner for delay of about 27 years in filing the present writ petition to challenge the impugned dismissal order dated 12.9.1973. In Writ Petition No.26570 of 1992, by aforequoted order dated 27.7.1999, this Court has clearly held that the petitioner is guilty of latches and accordingly dismissed the writ petition.
In view of the above discussions, this writ petition is also dismissed on the ground of latches.
Order Date :- 28.5.2018 Ak/