1988 PLP (C (PLC(CS))

CH. ABDUL RASHID (MEMBER).--This is an appeal by Mr. Muhammad Sharif, ex-Assistant Professor now Lecturer, Government Hashmat Ali Islamia College, Rawalpindi a/s 4 of the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974 in which Chief Secretary Government of the Punjab has been impleaded as Respondent. The appeal is against the order dated 6th May, 1987 whereby the appellant has been awarded a major penalty of reduction in rank from BPS-18 to BPS-17.

2. The facts of the case are that the appellant went on deputation to Nigeria for a period of five years with effect from 21st June, 1978. According to the deputation order dated 28th May, 1978, he was required to remit pension contribution to the Accountant-General, Punjab in foreign exchange regularly. He was also required to contribute towards General Provident Fund, Benevolent Fund and Group insurance in foreign exchange. The appellant did not make these contributions during his stay abroad. On re-joining his duties in the Education Department, Government of the Punjab, he was not issued Pay Slip because he had not made the abovementioned contributions. The District Accounts Officer, Rawalpindi vide his letter dated 9-10-1983 to the Principal, Government College, Murree, where the appellant was then posted, intimated the rate of Pension Contribution and also the heads of accounts for payment of various contributions. The appellant deposited the following amounts in the State Bank of Pakistan on 18-10-1983 as against those due from him in respect of four contributions required to be made by him: Sr. No. Nature of Contribution Amount Deposited Amount due against him

1. G.P. Fund Rs.100.00 Rs.11,100.00

2. Benevolent Fund Rs.12.00 Rs. 1,812.00

3. Pension contribution Rs.29.23 Rs. 9,329.23

4. Group Insurance Rs.20.00 Rs. 720.00 The appellant again deposited in State Bank of Pakistan on 30-11-1983 full amount due from him as given in Column 4 above.

3. The appellant allegedly tampered with the challans through which he had deposited small amounts on 18-10-1983 to read as full amounts as deposited on 30-11-1983 and submitted copies of the forged challans to the District Account Office on 27-11-1983. The District Accounts Officer finding that the challans had been forged, wrote a letter dated 29-11-1983 to the Education Secretary, Punjab for taking action against the officer for attempting to defraud the Government to the tune of Rs.22,800/-. The following Charge-sheet was served on the officer vide Memo dated 24-6-1986: - "You were required to contribute towards pension, group insurance, G.P.Fund and Benevolent Fund etc. , in foreign exchange for the period, you served in Nigeria but you failed to do. On return to Pakistan, you were asked by the Audit Office, Rawalpindi to make the requisite contribution to the tune of Rs.22,961.23. You deposited a sum of Rs.161.23 through four Bank Challans with the State Bank of Pakistan and tampered with the figures showing that the entire amount had been paid." Mr. Muhammad Asiam Sukhera was appointed as Enquiry Officer. The Enquiry Officer conducted an enquiry in which the appellant participated. He submitted his report on 12-8-1986 in which he held the appellant guilty of the charges levelled against him. After necessary formalities of show-cause notice, personal hearing etc. the competent authority i.e. , the Chief Secretary, Punjab imposed the penalty of reduction in rank from BPS-18 to BPS-17 vide his order dated 6th May, 1987. The review petition of the appellant was rejected by the competent authority vide Memo dated 27-7-1987. The appellant has come up in appeal against the order of 6th May, 1987 and the rejection of his review petition order of 27-7-1987.

4. The learned counsel for the appellant has raised the following points (i) That the contribution paid vide challis dated 18-10-1983 were only to check whether the deeds of account indicated therein were correct or not. Finding that these heads were not correct, the appellant tendered the amount due in full on 30-11-1983 indicating therein correct heads of account. (ii) That the Superintendent and the District Accounts Officer did not issue Pay Slip to the appellant for long and had been demanding illegal gratification and that the copies of the challans which had been interpolated had never formally been submitted by the appellant to the District Accounts Office, Rawalpindi nor these were intended to be. In fact when he visited the District Accounts Office, Rawalpindi after he had deposited the entire amount of Rs.22,961.23 the Superintendent of District Accounts Office, asked him to give original challans dated 30-11-1983 to him. This the appellant refused. "The Superintendent got some entries on the challans dated 18-10-1983 so as to make the amount deposited in the said challans to be equal to the amount deposited in the right head of account on 30-11-1983 and advised the appellant to keep those challans as personal record and hand-over to him the-original challans dated 30-11-1983. It was done accordingly". That on his next visit when the appellant approached the District Accounts Officer and the Superintendent, the appellant was asked to wait for sometime. The appellant left his private/ personal file at the table of the Superintendent and went to Canteen. This was the moment when the Superintendent and the District Accounts Officer removed the challans dated 18-10-1983 whereon the overwriting had been got made by the Superintendent obviously for keeping a Memo for the appellant in his personal file. These challans bore the amount deposited in wrong head of account. It has been contended on behalf of the appellant that this incident took place on 1-12-1983 and not on 27-11-1983 because the appellant was in the college on that date according to the endorsement dated 21-5-1984 by the Principal, Government College, Murree. (iii) That the Enquiry Officer has been partial and that interpolation made in the challans were not sent to the handwriting expert for verification as to whether this had been done in the hand of appellant or not. Moreover, the appellant was not offered full opportunity to defend himself.

5. We had called for the record of the proceedings of the enquiry and have gone through it. We have also seen the instruction on the subject. The record shows that the heads of account given in the challans dated 18-10-1983 are in accordance with those prescribed in Appendix 2 to the Account Code Volume I known as 'Chart of Classification of Federal and Provincial Government receipts and disbursements' issued by the Auditor-General of Pakistan with the approval of the President. The contention of the appellant that the heads of account in challans of 18-10-1983 were wrong is, therefore, incorrect.

6. Regarding the second point, unless an attempt had been made by the appellant for presenting the forged challans, the copies thereof could not have become available to the District Accounts Office especially when the officers of the Accounts Office were, according to appellant, inimical to him. The story of his leaving the personal file behind cannot, therefore, be believed. It appears that on learning that a reference has been made on 29th November, 1983 to the Secretary, Education for action against the appellant, he rushed to the State Bank of Pakistan on 30-11-1983 and deposited the whole amount. We, therefore, cannot find any substance in the story of the appellant.

7. As regards the third point raised by the learned counsel for the appellant, we feel that even if the opinion of the handwriting expert had been obtained, the enquiry officer would have relied on his own judgment, which he did in the present case. We have gone through the enquiry proceedings and find that adequate opportunity was provided to the appellant by the enquiry officer for meeting the ends of justice. He was also provided adequate opportunity by the authorized officer as well as the authority through the Additional Chief Secretary, Government of the Punjab, Services, General Administration and Information Department.

8. On the basis of the above discussions, we find that the appeal is without merit. The quantum of punishment awarded to the appellant is in our view fair. We, therefore, dismiss this appeal. S.Q. /142/Sr.P Appeal dismissed.