Updated on Thursday, November 05, 2009, 21:40 IST Tags:CAT, Govt

New Delhi: Disciplinary proceedings against a government employee can be quashed if there is "inordinate and unexplained" delay in initiating it, the Central Administrative Tribunal has said.

The tribunal passed the order while quashing a departmental inquiry against a CPWD engineer on the ground that the government had initiated the proceeding against him after a time gap of 13-years.

"The inordinate and unexplained delay in issuing the charge memorandum, the non-supply of the most crucial piece of evidence, very slow progress of the inquiry and the tone and tenor of the inquiry officer's report, on balance, go against the government," the tribunal, comprising Vice-Chairman L K Joshi and Member Dharam Paul Sharma, said.

The CAT passed the order on a petition filed by P K Mathur, now a retired superintendent engineer of Central Works Public Department (CPWD), challenging the departmental proceedings initiated against him.

The tribunal ordered the CPWD to stop the inquiry against Mathur and quashed the findings of the report with the direction to provide all post-retirement consequential benefits to the petitioner.

Bureau Report