Worker voluntary admitting charges can close down probe: HC

If an employee voluntarily admits to the charges against him during a departmental inquiry, then no fault can be found with the inquiry officer closing the probe, the Bombay High Court has held.
The ruling was delivered by justices V N Kanade and G S Kulkarni who quashed and set aside a judgement of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) allowing reinstatement of A V Tungare, an employee of Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), with 50 per cent back wages.
"In the present case, the disciplinary authority on the basis of the inquiry report which recorded the admission of the first respondent (employee) held that the charges have been proved," noted the judges.

"In our view, there was nothing unlawful on the part of the disciplinary authority proceeding on such admission made by the first respondent to pass the order of dismissal considering the seriousness of the charges," the bench said.
In this background, there is merit in the submissions advanced by the ESIC that the CAT could not have set aside the order of dismissal as passed by the disciplinary authority, the bench observed in its judgement.
"We are of the view that the Central Administrative Tribunal is in a clear error in directing reinstatement of the 1st respondent with 50 per cent back wages and permitting the disciplinary inquiry on reinstatement by allowing the original application filed by the 1st respondent," it noted.

"The findings of the Central Administrative Tribunal are also contrary to the aforesaid legal position and hence cannot be sustained. In the result, the writ petition filed by ESIC is allowed and the judgement of CAT of March 8, 2002, is hereby quashed and set aside," the bench said.
ESIC had filed a petition challenging the CAT order. It was admitted by the high court on September 13, 2002 and by an interim order, the implementation of the CAT judgement was stayed. During the pendency of the petition, Tungare, who had joined ESIC in 1978, had attained the age of superannuation in 2011.