HC sets aside punishment imposed on railway staffer for pulling chain

Raipur: Setting aside multiple orders and highlighting how four authorities failed to notice the vagueness of charges, the Chhattisgarh high court observed that merely pulling the alarm chain on a train does not constitute misconduct unless it is done without reasonable and sufficient cause.The court set aside the penalty imposed on a railway staff member and held that the charges failed to establish the essential ingredient of an offence under Section 141 of the Railways Act, 1989.A division bench of Justice Sanjay K Agrawal and Justice Radhakishan Agrawal overturned the punishment imposed on the South East Central Railway (SECR) staff member who was penalised for twice pulling the alarm chain on a train in 2010. The division bench reserved the order on Sept 10 and delivered it on Sept 18. The petitioner, who was a railway staff member, was accused of misusing the alarm chain twice at Bilaspur railway station on July 15, 2010. The allegation said that he pulled the chain to enable ‘his female family members with luggage to board the 2252 KRBA-YPR Express after it departed', causing an operational delay.Following a departmental enquiry, the disciplinary authority found the petitioner guilty and inflicted the penalty of reduction of pay by two stages for a period of two years. This penalty reduced his pay from Rs 11,180 plus Rs 4,200 Grade Pay (GP) to Rs 10,290 plus Rs 4,200 GP in the scale Rs 9,300-34,800.The original application filed by the petitioner under Section 19 of the administrative tribunals act, 1985, before the central administrative tribunal (CAT), Jabalpur bench, circuit sitting, Bilaspur, was dismissed on Oct 20, 2023, upholding the punishment. The HC observed that the disciplinary authority, appellate authority, revisional authority, and the CAT all failed to notice the vagueness of the charges.The court emphasised that the relevant section, Section 141 of the Railways Act, 1989, penalises needlessly interfering with the means of communication in a train. The chargesheet, however, did not allege that the petitioner pulled the chain "without any sufficient and reasonable cause." The disciplinary authority also did not record a specific finding on this crucial aspect.The bench said that since the charges were unspecific and vague, and did not include the key element of the act being committed without sufficient cause, no misconduct was made out against Hyde. Holding the act of chain pulling itself as a "serious offence" without considering the condition under Section 141 of the Railways Act led to a jurisdictional error.The court noted that the two RPF eyewitnesses only deposed that the petitioner pulled the chain because his family had not yet arrived to catch the train. Their depositions did not state that the chain was pulled "without reasonable and sufficient cause." The Chhattisgarh HC set aside the CAT order dated Oct 20, 2023, the revisional authority's order dated June 2, 2014, and the appellate authority's order dated June 26-27, 2013, which upheld the disciplinary authority's order dated Sept 11, 2012. The court also set aside the penalty imposed on the petitioner.