Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
V. Ajay Kumar, Member (J) and Nita Chowdhury

ORDER

V. Ajay Kumar, Member (J)

1. The applicant, a retired Senior Deputy Financial Advisor of the 1st Respondent-Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (in short, CSIR), filed the OA questioning the Annexure A1-Charge Memorandum dated 31.08.2015.

2. Briefly stated, the applicant attained the age of superannuation on 31.08.2015. After he was relieved at the end of the office hours on 31.08.2015, i.e., on the date of his superannuation, he was dropped at his residence by the official vehicle of the Respondent-CSIR at 6.00 PM. On 03.09.2015, he was served with the impugned Charge Memorandum dated 31.08.2015 issued under Rule 14 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, through Speed-post which was delivered to him at 4.45 PM on the said date.

3. The impugned Annexure A1-Charge Memorandum dated 31.08.2015 contains one Article of Charge and the same reads as under:

"Shri CS Malik, Sr. Deputy Financial Adviser, while functioning in the year 2010 at CSIR Hqrs., New Delhi committed misconduct inasmuch as, he, in the matter of payments to QHFs-Quick Hire Fellows in respect of NISTADS, New Delhi, by his irregular and violative recommendation on 12.01.2010 for making payments to QHFs from P-01 sub-head, from which salary is paid to scientists, led to the accordance of approval by the Financial Adviser and thereby perpetuated the payments made to the tune of over Rs. 1.0 crore to QHFs in NISTADS, although no such power was delegated to the officer under the existing rules. By his aforesaid acts of omission and commission, the said Shri Malik exhibited lack of absolute integrity and devotion to duty and acted in a manner unbecoming to a Council servant contravening the Rule 3(1)(i), (ii) and (iii) of CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964."

4. Shri R.N. Singh, the learned counsel appearing for the applicant in support of the OA averments, inter alia, contended, as under:

i) Rule 35 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 read with FR 56 prescribes that a Government servant shall retire from service with effect from the afternoon of the last day of the month in which his date of retirement falls. Hence, once the applicant was allowed to retire from service at the end of the office hours of the afternoon of 31.08.2015, no chargesheet can be issued under Rule 14 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, thereafter.

ii) Though the applicant was very much available in the office till the afternoon of 31.08.2015, the respondents sent the impugned charge memorandum issued under Rule 14 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, through Speed-post which was booked on 31.08.2015 at 20.35 hours, i.e., after the relief of the applicant from service, and delivered to the applicant on 03.09.2015. No chargesheet can be issued under Rule 14 of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 to the applicant on 03.09.2015, as he was retired from service, unconditionally, on 31.08.2015 itself.

iii) Neither the draft charge memorandum nor the impugned charge memorandum were approved by the Director General of CSIR, who is the competent disciplinary authority of the applicant and hence, in view of the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in B.V. Gopinath v. Union of India, MANU/SC/0903/2013 : (2014) 1 SCC (L & S) 161, the impugned Charge Memorandum is liable to be quashed being non-est.

iv) The Vice President of the CSIR is the appellate authority. The impugned Charge Memorandum was issued on behalf of the Vice-President and against whose orders no appeal is available. Hence, the applicant lost his substantial right of appeal. On this ground also, the impugned Charge Memorandum is liable to be quashed.

v) The charge levelled against the applicant in th........