Srinagar: Underscoring that unauthorised absence cannot amount to automatic cessation of service even if the delinquent is a probationer, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh Friday quashed an order by virtue of which the Competent Authority had terminated the services of an orderly in a Family Court here for “unauthorised absence” for five days.
Allowing a petition by the orderly, Shahnawaz Shah, a bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Puneet Gupta said: “the unauthorised absence cannot and must not amount to automatic cessation of service even if the delinquent is a probationer.”
Shahnawaz was terminated from service by application of Rule 21 (1) (b) of the CCA Rules of 1956 on the charges of absence from duties while he was on probation. He challenged his termination through senior advocate Faisal Qadri.
The Court pointed that the power available with the Competent Authority under the Rule is only to discharge the probationer from probation in the event the performance is found not satisfactory, which, it said, is not the case set out against the petitioner.
The Competent Authority, the court said, had not taken into account the plea taken by the orderly in support of his defence that he had developed covid-19 symptoms, followed the standard procedure and stayed off to prevent others getting infected.