Can’t act at fag end of career, says MHC: Panchayat staff’s suspension put on hold, fresh inquiry on

CHENNAI: Noting that the Court cannot allow the Damocles sword hanging over the head of the petitioner till the date of his retirement, the Madras High Court quashed the suspension order issued against him at the fag end of his service.

Not permitting an employee to retire by issuing suspension orders at the last phase of the service period has been repeatedly deprecated by this court, wrote Justice N Anand Venkatesh while allowing a petition moved by a panchayat union office employee against his suspension order over allegedly submitting bogus transfer certificate.

The genuineness of documents that are submitted including the transfer certificate should be tested even at the probation time when a person is appointed or regularised in service, wrote the judge.

There was sufficient time for the authorities to conduct an enquiry against the petitioner regarding the alleged offence and come to a conclusion, the judge observed.

The HC allowed the respondent to issue a charge memo to the petitioner. After giving an opportunity to the petitioner, a final decision should be taken within a period of three months, the court ordered.

The petitioner D Selvan was engaged and appointed on a daily wage basis in the Vembakkam panchayat union, Tiruvannamalai.

Later in 2006, he was brought under scale of pay and his employment was also reportedly regularised after properly scrutinising all the submitted records including his transfer certificate.

While the petitioner is going to retire from service in July 2025 after completing 18 years of service, all of a sudden, the commissioner of the panchayat union undertook an exercise of verifying the records submitted by the petitioner at the time his service was regularised.

After receiving communication from the headmaster of the school where the petitioner studied, the commissioner came to the conclusion that the transfer certificate submitted by the petitioner was bogus. Hence, the commissioner issued a suspension order, which the court has stayed.