WPMS/1295/2009 of JASWANT SINGH Vs STATE OF UTTARAKHAND and ANOTHER on 31 December 2009

HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL

Writ Petition No. 1295 of 2009 (M/S)

Jaswant Singh

..

… Petitioner

Versus

State of Uttarakhand & others … Respondents Mr. T.A. Khan, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.P. Upadhyay, Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand/respondent nos. 1 to 4.

31st December, 2009

Hon’ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.

Heard Sri T.A. Khan, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Sri K.P. Upadhyay, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand.

The case of the petitioner in this writ petition is that he is working in the Commercial Tax Department in the State of Uttarakhand. According to the petitioner he has a valid passport bearing no. B-1647395 which is valid upto 18.7.2010. All the same, he applied for renewal of his passport/issuance of new passport to the relevant authorities. However, before such passport could be issued a “No Objection Certificate” was necessary from the department in which the petitioner was working. The department, however, were not giving such “No Objection Certificate” to the petitioner, hence, in the writ petition the main prayer of the petitioner is that the respondents be directed to issue “No Objection Certificate” to the petitioner so that his application for issuance of passport may be processed.

In the counter affidavit which has been filed by the State Government, it has been stated that “No Objection Certificate” has not been issued in the case of the petitioner and the reasons are pending disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner.

The petitioner has now filed an affidavit stating that as far as disciplinary proceedings are concerned the enquiry has completed. However, he has received a notice dated 6[th] October, 2009 whereby the petitioner has been asked to explain as to why he should not be dismissed from service. According to the petitioner, he has already submitted the reply to the notice dated 6[th] October, 2009.The petitioner further contends that no final order in the disciplinary proceedings has been passed as yet.

On these set of facts, since the enquiry against the petitioner is already complete and the petitioner has been given show-cause notice on the punishment which admittedly the petitioner has replied, there is no reason why the proceedings be delayed any further. The writ petition is, therefore, disposed of with the directions that in case the final order has not been passed as yet, respondent no. 2is directed to pass such orders based on the said enquiry and the explanation given by the petitioner as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of two months. After such order, as referred above, has been passed respondent no. 2 may then consider the application of the petitioner regarding grant of “No Objection Certificate”, as regarding the passport.

With these observations, writ petition is disposed of. No orders as to costs.

31.12.2009 Avneet

(Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.)