JAMMU, May 30: A DB comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar has upheld the dismissal of a police constable accused of assisting a Pakistani militant by arranging a hideout for him & allowed an appeal filed by the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir against an earlier judgment of a Single Bench that had quashed the dismissal of Ghulam Mohd Tantray, a driver constable in the Police Department, ruling that the Government was justified in dispensing with a regular departmental inquiry in the interest of State security.
Tantray, who joined the Police Department in 1991, was dismissed from service through Government Order No. 367-GAD of 2007 dated April 2, 2007. The dismissal was ordered under Section 126(2)(c) of the erstwhile Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, a provision corresponding to Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution of India.
The provision allows dismissal of a Government employee without holding a departmental inquiry when the competent authority is satisfied that such an inquiry would not be expedient in the interest of the security of the State.
Challenging the order, Tantray had approached the High Court, arguing that he had been removed from service without being given an opportunity to defend himself. In April 2011, a Single Judge accepted his plea and set aside the dismissal order, holding that the authorities had failed to justify abandoning the departmental inquiry that had initially been initiated against him.
The Bench observed that the official records contained ample material supporting the Government’s decision to invoke the security clause and dispense with a regular inquiry.
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