Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:17764 Court No. - 3 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 12462 of 2024 Petitioner :- Anil Kumar Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Panchayati Raj Anubhag 2 U.P. Lko. And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Umesh Kumar Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Rajesh Singh Chauhan,J. 1. Heard Sri Umesh Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Vivek Shukla, learned Addl. Chief Standing Counsel for the State- opposite parties. 2. By means of this petition, the petitioner has prayed following main reliefs:- " (i) That by means of a writ in the nature of Certiorari or any other suitable writ, order or direction in the said nature, the impugned order of punishment dated 19.11.2024, passed by the opposite parties and contained in Annexure No.1 to the writ petition, may kindly be quashed. (ii) That by means of a writ in the nature of Mandamus or any other suitable writ, order or direction in the said nature, the opposite parties No.1 and 2 be commanded to consider the promotion of petitioner on the post of Engineer in Zila Panchayat ignoring the impugned order of punishment dated 19.11.2024, which is nullity and no order in the eyes of law." 3. This Court has passed the order dated 20.03.2025, which reads as under:- "1. Heard Sri Umesh Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Pradeep Kumar Singh, learned Addl. C.S.C. for the State. 2. This Court vide orders dated 20.12.2024 and 2.1.2025 granted time to the State counsel to seek specific instructions on the point as to whether before passing the impugned order of punishment any opportunity of hearing was given to the petitioner and as to whether any date, time or place to conduct the oral inquiry has been fixed or not. 3. Sri Pradeep Kumar Singh, learned Addl. C.S.C. prays for and is granted a week's time and no more to seek instructions on the aforesaid point and on the next date the records shall be produced. 4. List on 27.3.2025. 5. This matter may be taken up at 2.15 P.M." 4. On the basis of records and instructions so received by Sri Vivek Shukla, he has stated that before passing the impugned order of punishment, no date, time and place was fixed to conduct the oral inquiry. 5. On that Sri Srivastava has stated that if the punishment order has been passed on the basis of inquiry report wherein no date, time and place to conduct the oral inquiry has been fixed, the punishment order would vitiate. 6. Therefore, in view of the above, the impugned punishment order vitiates inasmuch as the inquiry officer must have fixed date, time and place to conduct the oral inquiry and the charges so levelled against the petitioner must have been proved on the basis of material and evidences adduced even if the disciplinary authority has issued show cause notice to the petitioner before passing the impugned punishment order but that would not suffice for the simple reason that the punishment order is based upon the inquiry report of the inquiry officer, who has not conducted the inquiry strictly in accordance with law. The inquiry officer must prove the charges against the petitioner by conducting proper departmental inquiry by fixing date, time and place for regular inquiry and in absence thereof, the findings of inquiry officer would vitiate. When the inquiry report vitiates, the consequential punishment order would also vitiate. 7. Accordingly, the impugned punishment order dated 19.11.2024 (Annexure No.1) is hereby set aside/ quashed only on the aforesaid ground. The matter is remanded back to the competent authority/ disciplinary authority/ inquiry officer to conduct the fresh departmental inquiry from the stage of defect strictly in accordance with law, if it is so required, and thereafter the disciplinary authority may pass a fresh order by affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner supplying copy of the inquiry report. 8. It is made clear that if the decision is taken to conduct de- novo inquiry, such inquiry would be conducted and concluded with expedition. 9. Accordingly, the writ petition is allowed partly to that extent. [Rajesh Singh Chauhan,J.] Order Date :- 27.3.2025 RBS/- Digitally signed by :- RAM BIR SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench