Expressing strong displeasure over deployment of Railway staff by senior officials for their private needs, the Delhi High Court has asked the Railways to pay Rs. 30,000 to a Bungalow Khalasi for removing him illegally from service way back in 1998.
Setting aside the removal order as well as an order by Central Administrative Tribunal, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said that the employee, Shrikant Prajapati, “will be reinstated in service with all consequential benefits as if there was no break in service from the date of his removal”.
“He will be entitled to all pay and allowances and all consequential benefits from June 8, 1998, onwards when he was removed from service,’’ the Bench further said.
The Bench asked the Railways to pay the costs of Rs.30,000 of the petition to the petitioner within a period of four weeks.
“This Court has perused the entire record of the case. It depicts an unhappy state of affairs. It raises serious questions about the manner in which the staff attached to the senior officers of the Railways are being shunted out from one place to the other for their private needs, contrary to the specific job description of such person,’’ the Bench observed.
Mr. Prajapati had alleged in his petition that when N.P. Srivastava, General Manager, Advisor (Budget) of the Railway Board, was transferred to Allahabad, he was asked to work as domestic help at the residence of his daughter, Teesa Srivastava, at Vasant Kunj in South Delhi.
``The respondents are unclear why the petitioner was posted at Delhi…….while the General Manager to whom he was attached was posted at Allahabad,’’ the Bench stated.
The petitioner was appointed as a Bungalow Khalasi with N.P. Srivastava in 1996. He was removed from service on the ground of absence from work.
The Railways failed to explain how the petitioner who was on record posted with the General Manager at Allahabad could be transferred to Delhi to work at the residence of his daughter.
