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TMI Blog2022 (1) TMI 756X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t the respondent had opened and operated a savings account No. 7882 in the joint name of the respondent and his sister-inlaw by forging her signatures, and encashed a demand draft of Rs. 20,000/- which was issued to her by way of interim relief by Kalyan Nigam Limited in which her husband was employed as a Junior Engineer, who had unfortunately passed away in a road accident on 15.4.1994. The respondent was placed under suspension on 5.11.1994 by the Bank for committing acts of grave misconduct at the Gorakhpur Branch and he was issued a chargesheet dated 22.3.1995. The charges are as under: "Charge No.1: On 28.9.94 you went to the clearing house without collecting the outward clearing cheques from Mr. T.K. Sridhar officer in violation of the specific instructions of the Branch Manager Mr. R.N. Saxena and thus you committed an act of wilful insubordination which is a gross misconduct under para 19.5(e) of the Bipartite Settlement dated 19.10.66. Charge No.2: You refused to include the outward clearing cheques for Rs. 2,21,161.47 for the day's clearing on 28.9.94 when Mr. A.K. Chakraborthy and Mr. S.N. Pandey officer handed over the said cheques at the clearing house before 10. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... An inquiry officer was appointed to adjudicate upon the charges. It is the appellant's case that all principles of natural justice were followed and the respondent was supplied with all documents/material relied upon by the appellant-Bank. The inquiry officer concluded the inquiry and submitted the report dated 6.12.1995 opining that all charges stood proved against the respondent. Consequently, the respondent was served with a show cause notice dated 28.2.1996 by the Disciplinary Authority proposing the punishment of dismissal from service. The respondent submitted a reply but the Disciplinary Authority after considering the reply proceeded to uphold the finding and impose the penalty of dismissal from service vide order dated 11.5.1996. 5. The respondent filed an appeal before the appellate authority but the appellate authority rejected the appeal vide order dated 10.9.1996. 6. The respondent sought to raise an industrial dispute and the Central Government referred the dispute vide G.O. dated 30.10.2003 to the Presiding Officer, Central Government Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Kanpur on the issue whether the action of the Management imposing the penalty of dismissal was justifie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... banker's eye it could be said that there is absence of similarity. Mrs. Meera Srivastava's claim was that even the account was opened fraudulently without her ever visiting the bank. The position was the same with respect to two withdrawal slips of Rs. 7,000/- and Rs. 13,000/-. Mrs. Meera Srivastava had corroborated this aspect in her deposition. In the deposition she accepted that both her and the respondent were members of a joint family but the drafts were given to the respondent for safe-keeping and when after one and a half month she asked the respondent to return her draft he refused to do so on one pretext or the other. Thus, two or three months later she complained to the bank on learning that the drafts had been encashed at the Branch. On making the complaint she got her money from the Bank. In her crossexamination it was never put to her that she had gone to the Bank to open the account and the account opening form bears her signatures nor was it put to her that she had gone to the Bank to withdraw the amounts of Rs. 7,000/- and Rs. 13,000/-. Her statement was opined to have been trustworthy by both the inquiry officer and the Industrial Tribunal. Submissions of the Appe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ulting from frequent observations and experiences. In both the cases, the Court is required to satisfy itself by such means as are open to conclude that the opinion may be acted upon. Irrespective of an opinion of the Handwriting Expert, the Court can compare the admitted writing with disputed writing and come to its own independent conclusion. Such exercise of comparison is permissible under Section 73 of the Evidence Act. Ordinarily, Sections 45 and 73 are complementary to each other. Evidence of Handwriting Expert need not be invariably corroborated. It is for the Court to decide whether to accept such an uncorroborated evidence or not. It is clear that even when experts' evidence is not there, Court has power to compare the writings and decide the matter. [See Murari Lal vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (1980) 1 SCC 704]" Conclusion: 14. On having considered the rival submissions of the learned counsel for the parties, we are of the view that the High Court has fallen into an error in coming to the conclusion in the impugned judgment and directing, once again, the matter to be remitted to the Industrial Tribunal to now seek opinion of a hand writing expert. 15. We would lik ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d nothing, nor for that matter was it put to her in cross-examination that she had ever visited the bank, opened the account or signed the encashment vouchers. The relationships in the family were not estranged nor was there any endeavour to "fix" the respondent by a relative. In our view this evidence was enough to implicate the respondent. 17. The High Court appears to have applied the test of criminal proceedings to departmental proceedings while traversing the path of requirement of a hand writing expert to be called for the said purpose. This would go contrary to the settled legal position enunciated by this Court. It would suffice for us to refer to a recent judgment in Ashoo Surendranath Tewari v. Deputy Superintendent of Police, EOW, CBI (2020) 9 SCC 636 where it has been observed while referring to earlier judicial precedents, that the standard of proof in departmental proceedings, being based on preponderance of probability, is somewhat lower than the standard of proof in criminal proceedings where the case has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. 18. We may also notice that the High Court has opined that only charges 4 & 5 could really have been gone into by the Indus ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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