Dismissal of peon who left sans informing at judge's home upheld

A division bench of Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the dismissal of a class-4 employee of the high court, who left a judge's home without informing "anybody" and remained absent from the duty next day.

The high court division bench of justice SK Mittal and justice MS Chauhan upheld the decision of a single judge bench of employee's dismissal holding that quantum of punishment was within the exclusive domain of the competent punishing authority. "Needless to stress that every employee is bound to follow reasonable and lawful orders of his employer related to his work. Failure to do so may be a ground for dismissal/removal from service or other disciplinary actions," the high court division bench ruled.

The employee, Santoshi Lal, is "recalcitrant, insolent, insubordinate and disobedient" and was not forthright in committing himself to perform his duties diligently in future in the event of an opportunity being given to him, the division bench order passed reads.

Santoshi Lal, the high court order says, was asked by a private secretary to the judge to perform duties at the residence of judge but he left the judge's residence at 6pm on April 14, 2006, without informing anybody at the house, and on the next day too, he remained absent without getting any prior permission. The order also records that after the episode, he flatly refused to obey judge's orders on April 17, 2006, and on the basis, it was observed that he was "disobedient and a work shirker".

In the explanation sought, Lal had told in his defence that he was not feeling well, so left the judge's home after informing the private secretary, and the next morning, he could not perform the duty owing to his illness. The explanation was not accepted and he was chargesheeted. In January 2011, the administration ordered his removal from the service.