State of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief / Prin.Secy. Rural Engineering Deptt. U.P. Govt. Lko. and Others v. Dhirendra Sahai

Court No. - 1

¶1Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 896 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief / Prin.Secy. Rural Engineering Deptt. U.P. Govt. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Dhirendra Sahai Counsel for Respondent :- Mohd. Usman Ghani Khan Connected with

¶2Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 309 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Public Work Deptt. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Ram Achal Koulik Counsel for Respondent :- Phool Bux Singh

¶3Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 344 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Food And Civil Supplies Deptt. U.P. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Smt. Anju Kumari Counsel for Respondent :- Jagdambika Prasad Tripathi

¶4Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 346 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy./Prin. Secy. Lok Nirman Vibhag Civil Secrt. Lko. And Another Respondent :- Eklavya Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- Anwar Ashfaq

5.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 376 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P Thru. Addl Chief Secy. Deptt. Appointment Govt. Sectt. Lko And Another Respondent :- Pradeep Kumar Srivastava

6.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 397 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. State Tax Govt. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Another Respondent :- Madhur Milan Singh Counsel for Respondent :- Madhav Chaturvedi

7.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 456 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Revenue Deptt. Govt. Of U.P. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Giriwar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- Mahendra Pratap Singh

8.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 187 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Namani Gange Evm Gramin Jalapurti And 2 Others Respondent :- Mrityunjai Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- Mahendra Pratap Singh

9.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 188 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Its Addl. Chief/ Prin. Secy. Secrtt. Administration Deptt. Lko. And Another Respondent :- Mithilesh Kumar

10.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 208 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Prin. Irrigation And Water Resources Lko. Respondent :- Sanjeev Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- Raj Kumar Upadhyaya (R.K.Upadhyaya)

11.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 210 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Prin. Secy. Minority Welfare And Waqf Lko. And 3 Others Respondent :- Amar Nath Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- Pt. S. Chandra

12.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 232 of 2023 Appellant :- State U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Food Civil. Suppli. Deptt. Govt. Civil Secrt. Lko. And 3 Others Respondent :- Smt. Archna Tiwari Counsel for Appellant :- Nishant Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- Jagdambika Prasad Tripathi

13.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 240 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Food And Civil Supplies Deptt. U.P. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Krishna Mohan Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- Jagdambika Prasad Tripathi

14.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 272 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addil. Chief Secy. Deptt. Revenue U.P. Govt. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Harish Chandra Pathak And Another Counsel for Respondent :- Shobhit Mohan Shukla,Anand Mani Tripathi,Saryu Prasad Tiwari

15.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 322 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Appointment U.P. Govt. Civil Secrt. Lko. Respondent :- Vijay Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- Nitish Kumar Srivastava,Raj Kumar Upadhyaya (R.K.Upadhyaya)

¶16Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 468 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Its Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Revenue Lko. And 2 Others Respondent :- Prashant Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- Gaurav Mehrotra,Akber Ahmad

17.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 557 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Finance (Audit) Govt. Of U.P. Lko. And Others Respondent :- Avanindra Dikshit And Others Counsel for Respondent :- Neel Kamal Mishra,Raj Kumar Upadhyaya (R.K.Upadhyaya),Siddhant Mishra

18.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 663 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Deptt. Transport U.P. Govt. Civil Secrt. Lko And Another Respondent :- Saurabh Kumar

19.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 751 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Deptt. Of Commercial Tax/ State Tax Civil U.P. Govt. Lko And Others Respondent :- Ram Shankar Counsel for Respondent :- Priya Vrat AND

20.Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 793 of 2023 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Finance Govt. Of U.P. Lko. And Another Respondent :- Arvind Kumar Singh And Another Counsel for Respondent :- Shiv P. Shukla,Raj Kumar Upadhyaya (R.K.Upadhyaya),Ravi Shan Tewari Hon'ble Attau Rahman Masoodi,J. Hon'ble Om Prakash Shukla,J.

¶1At the outset, it has been submitted by learned counsel for the appellants that some appeals, namely Special Appeal (D) Nos. 896 of 2023, 187 of 2023, 188 of 2023, 208 of 2023, 210 of 2023, 323 of 2023, 240 of 2023, 272 of 2023, 322 of 2023, 468 of 2023, 557 of 2023, 663 of 2023, 751 of 2023 and 793 of 2023 have been filed with some delay. The applications for condonation of delay are duly supported with affidavits.

¶2There is no objection filed by the respondents against condonation of delay.

3.Having regard to the averments made in the affidavits filed in support of the applications seeking condonation of delay, we are satisfied that the delay in filing the intra-court appeals have sufficiently been explained.

¶4Accordingly, the applications are allowed and delay in filing the said special appeals is hereby condoned. Order on Memo of the Appeal

5.Heard learned counsel for the parties.

¶6This bunch of intra-court appeals has questioned a limited part of the impugned judgement which reads as:- "Learned Chief Standing Counsel-III makes a statement before this Court, on instructions, that the State shall ensure that appropriate departmental proceedings are initiated against the erring Inquiry Officers as well as the disciplinary authorities. He assures the Court that these proceedings shall also be brought to its logical conclusion, within a period of two months in accordance with law. "

¶7The aforesaid direction had come to be issued in the wake of the fact that this Court had time and again experienced the disciplinary authorities having not followed the mandate of law, partly for the reason that untrained Inquiry Officers were assigned the enquiry and as a consequence of dereliction of duty, the observance of the rule of law was not meticulously met with.

¶8We however notice that the disciplinary proceedings in all the matters have been reopened. It is also informed that some exercise of training of the government staff for the purposes of holding departmental inquiry has also been provided for as per the directions issued by this Court in the order dated 07.05.2022 passed in Writ-A No.2555 of 2023( Prakash Chandra Agarwal vs State of U.P and Anr).

¶9The impugned direction according to Sri Abitabh Rai, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel proceeds on the basis of a concession offered by Chief Standing Counsel-III and the same is prayed to be expunged in the light of the changed circumstances for the reason that the inquiries which are to be held in pursuance of the judgement passed by this Court shall henceforth be conducted strictly in accordance with the rules applicable in this behalf.

¶10It is also assured that in case any of the Inquiry Officers in future is found guilty of not adhering to the rules strictly, the State shall proceed to take a strict action against such an erring officer so that repeated anomalies in the disciplinary proceedings do not creep in.

¶11We hope and trust that the necessary guidelines issued as regards the conduct of disciplinary proceedings are duly sensitized amongst the government officials deputed for such a duty and ample care is taken to conduct the disciplinary proceedings as per rules so that the purpose of law for maintaining discipline, integrity and obedience is served.

¶12Since this Court is already monitoring the issue in question in Special Appeal No.351 of 2022:State Of U.P.Thru.Addl.Chief Secy./Prin.Secy. Home Deptt. Lko And Another vs Prakash Chandra Agarwal, therefore, we hereby expunge the aforesaid part of the judgement for any further action to be taken against the disciplinary officers or inquiry officers for which the respondents do not have any objection. The order passed by this Court shall stand modified accordingly.

¶13It is made clear that this Court has not entered into any other aspect of the matter decided by the writ court.

¶14All the appeals are disposed of accordingly. Order Date :- 22.11.2023 Shahnaz High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench