HC stays termination of 'scapegoat' officer

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, May 5

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the operation of an order terminating the services of “Manager Grade-I” after he contended, among other things, that he was being made a scapegoat.

‘Appointed after selection by panel’

• The direction came on a petition filed against the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation and another respondent Pradip Kumar Gupta
• Appearing before Justice Grewal’s Bench, it was contended that the then MD, Ashok Khemka, and current MD Sanjeev Verma had lodged an FIR against each other
• The counsel said the petitioner was appointed in the ex-serviceman category in the respondent corporation in 2010 after proper selection by a committee consisting of five officers, including 3 IAS officers

This, he contended, was due to professional animosity between the current managing director and the then managing director holding the post at the time of his appointment.

The direction by Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal came of a petition filed against the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation and another respondent by Pradip Kumar Gupta through counsel Amar Vivek Aggarwal and Deepika Sood.

Appearing before Justice Grewal’s Bench, Aggarwal contended the then MD, Ashok Khemka, and current MD Sanjeev Verma had lodged an FIR against each other.

The current MD joined on April 8 and started inquiry in the selections made by Khemka in 2010.

He added that the petitioner was appointed in the ex-serviceman category in the respondent corporation in 2010 after proper selection by a committee consisting of five officers, including three IAS officers.

Aggarwal contended the petitioner’s services were terminated by the impugned order passed on April 20, alleging that he did not have an experience of seven years in handling agricultural produce.

Aggarwal, however, submitted that the petitioner was an ex-serviceman having served in the Indian Air Force for 20 years and the condition of having experience of handling agricultural produce was relaxable in terms of Regulation 30 of the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (Officers and Staff) Regulations, 1994.

“The petitioner is being made a scapegoat due to professional rivalry and animosity between respondent, the current managing director and the then managing director, who was holding the post, at the time of petitioner’s appointment,” he submitted.

Issuing notice to the respondents, Justice Grewal fixed August 1 as the next date of hearing and asserted: “The operation of the impugned order dated April 20 shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing.”

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