The High Court on Thursday ruled that a government action declaring an employee as deadwood should be “fair enough to withstand the test of judicial scrutiny.”
Upholding a single bench judgment directing the government to reinstate an officer Shamim Ahmad Laharwal, a division bench of justices Muhammad Yaqoob Mir and MK Hanjura observed that the concerned authorities entrusted with the job of weeding out the deadwood have to be more serious and cautious.
In 2015, the Jammu and Kashmir government had ordered premature retirement of Laharwal for being “deadwood”.
The bench underscored that fairness of action against an employee as “deadwood” must withstand the test of judicial scrutiny.
The court pointed out that if it emerges to be correct that a government servant has become indolent, corrupt and does not enjoy good reputation and must be weeded out, the action is appreciable.
“But when on judicial scrutiny it is found to be only in the name of saying that the deadwood is weeded out by targeting a particular government servant, it becomes very shocking,” it said.
The court observed that for holding a particular government employee as a “bad person,” there must be a solid foundation which, it said, is missing in the instant case. “Nothing in that respect is forthcoming from the records. To say that a particular person is bad person without any solid foundation is sin,” the court added.
“The service record of the petitioner and the position of his promotion and posting,” the court said, “clearly suggest that an essential component for forming base so as to assess the actual position for invoking powers under Regulation 226(2) of CSR has been given go by.”
“The recommendation and the consequent acceptance thereof, then the order of premature retirement is absolutely arbitrary, so unsustainable,” the court said.
“The single judge has meticulously examined the record which was warranted because of the fact that the entire service record of the petitioner was not considered or was ignored by the Review Committee that recommended his premature retirement,” the bench said, adding the single bench judgment does not call for any interference and is upheld.
In this way, the bench upheld the single bench judgment of December 13, 2016 that had nullified the government order terminating the service of Laharwal and ordering for his reinstatement.
Citing a three-judge bench of Supreme Court in the case of ‘Baikuntha Nath Das and another Vs Chief District Medical Officer, Baripada and others”, the court said it has laid the principle that before taking decision, the entire record of service of a government servant has to be considered.
“When responsible officers have categorically recorded in the minutes of the meeting that the APRs of the petitioner were assessed and he has been graded “very good”, how could respondents now before this court say that APRs were not available or that the same were incomplete,” the court observed.
“It appears that the minutes of the said high-level committee have not been placed before the Review Committee which has recommended premature retirement of the petitioner,” the court said
The court observed that once a government servant becomes corrupt and indolent, he automatically loses utility. Such a government servant, the court said, can safely be said to have outlived utility.
“To retire such a person by invoking powers under Regulation 226(2) of CSR has to be appreciated being in the public interest,” the court added.
“The corrupt and indolent persons having bad name, bad reputation and image, in effect, are not only eyesore but are a curse for the public,” the court observed.
Declaring employee deadwood must withstand judicial scrutiny: High Court
