The Allahabad High Court stayed the suspension order of SDO of Electricity Urban Distribution Sub-Division Ganganagar Meerut and permitted the petitioner to discharge his duties and paid salary regularly.
A Single Bench of Justice JJ Munir passed this order while hearing a petition filed by Dinesh Kumar Maurya.
Prima facie, the charge against the petitioner is of absence from the sub-station of his duty which led to some delay in installation of the transformer resulting in interruption of the power supply during the summer month of June, 2024.
Counsel for the petitioner has argued that power supply during the said period was ensured through a Bus Coupler and there was no interruption.
We cannot go into the question if the supply was managed through the device described as a Bus Coupler. However, prima facie, it appears that the charge is one of negligence and not serious enough to lead to the imposition of a major penalty, particularly, a terminal one, the court observed.
In the circumstances, the power to suspend pending inquiry has been exercised against settled principles and arbitrarily, the court said.
The Court granted two weeks time to file a counter affidavit for the respondents.
Until further orders of the Court, operation of the suspension order dated 14.06.2024 shall remain suspended and the petitioner shall be permitted to discharge his duties and paid salary regularly. It is, however, directed that the disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner shall continue wherein the petitioner will cooperate.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on December 9, 2024.
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