Premature Retirement: Relief for Gupta, Mahendru, 13 ors

JAMMU: A day after it provided relief to as many as seven employees who were retired compulsory of their services, the state high court on Wednesday dismissed 15 LPAs filed by the State against the judgment of Writ Court whereby the latter had quashed the premature retirements.
The much controversial case, has seen government slammed time and again and on Wednesday, a Division Bench of Court headed by Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur brought respite to 15 more employees including Kishore Kumar Gupta, Chief Engineer, Kamal Mahendru, Additional PF Commissioner, Babu Ram, Additional Secretary Social Welfare, Dr Manoj Bhagat, Medical Superintendent, Parshotam Kumar, Shabir Ahmed, Madan Lal, Ghulam Hassan Kamal, Padam Dev Sharma, Ghulam Hassan Kamal, Syed Ikhlaq Hussain, Romesh Chander, Gian Chand, Baj Singh, Krishan Lal and Khurshid Ahmed.
On Wednesday, after hearing both the sides, the court observed that with a view to get information regarding the reputation which an officer enjoyed, the concerned secretary of the Administrative Department had been co-opted as a member of the committee whose views were given due respect and weightage while making the recommendation.
Asserting that in the present case, the committee has not discussed as to what was the source or material based upon which the petitioner was said to be not enjoying good reputation, the court said the order of premature retirement based upon any such assessment can only be said to be arbitrary and thus cannot be upheld on the legal touchstone.
Division Bench observed testing the facts of the present case on the touchstone of the law discussed hereinabove, it can be seen that the Committee constituted by the government did not at all consider the relevant material and had taken a decision based only upon the fact that an FIR had been registered by the Vigilance Organization Jammu against the petitioner.
"In that view of the matter, there was no justification for the State to pre-maturely retire the respondent-petitioner from service," the court said while dismissing the appeals of the state.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had filed an SPL in the apex court against three cases disposed by the Double Bench of the State High Court recently. Out of three cases, the SC has withdrawn the SPL filed against Javed Ahmed Shah and Satish Khajuria, said official reports.
Official sources said that out of 63 employees who were shown the door by the government have knocked the door of court and court in response of bunch of the petitions gave respite to the 37 employees.
Here it needs to mention that Jammu and Kashmir Government on June 30, 2015 ordered premature retirement to the 63 government employees- 37 from Jammu and 29 from Kashmir division- by invoking Article 226 of CSR on the recommendations of a high powered review committee headed by then Chief Secretary of the state namely Mohammad Iqbal Khandey.