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2019 (8) TMI 917 - HC - Companies LawMaintainability of writ petition - proceedings against an officer of President level and senior most permanent employee of the company, Petronet LNG Limited - ex-parte order- petitioner concluded his arguments on the maintainability and submitted that it is obvious that the words “Any person or Authority”, used in Article 226 of the Constitution of India, are, therefore, not to be confined only to statutory authorities and instrumentalities of the State - HELD THAT:- The respondent company is “Public Limited Company‟ as per section “4-Memorandum-(1)” of Companies Act, 2003. The company was formed as a joint venture company by Government of India in 1998 in pursuance of Cabinet decision on 04.07.1997. Thus, it is an instrumentality of Government because it comes under purview of “other authorities” of “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution of India - It is admitted fact that the petitioner did not attend the committee proceedings inspite a number of chance given to him and, therefore, proceedings were concluded ex-parte. The case of the petitioner is that the entire disciplinary proceedings are unconstitutional, void, wrong and against the principles of natural Justice and in contravention of provision of Article 311 of the Constitution of India. Validity of ex-parte report of Inquiry Committee dated 18.12.2018 and charge-sheet dated 21.08.2018 issued to the petitioner - holding of CBI/CVC Inquiry against the respondent no.6 for financial corruption being committed by the said respondent - HELD THAT:- The present petition has been filed at the stage when the Inquiry report dated 18.12.2018 was sent to the petitioner vide letter dated 24.12.2018 and one weeks‟ time was granted to him to make the representation. It is not in dispute that, at his request, vide letter dated 04.01.2019 he was granted further time to submit his representation by 11.01.2019 against the representation. However, instead of making the representation, the petitioner filed the present writ petition challenging the Inquiry report as well as charge-sheet - Further case of the petitioner is that the charge-sheet has been issued by an incompetent authority as it has been issued by the Senior Manager HR; under Section 178 of the Companies Act, 2013 the appointing authority of the petitioner is the Board of Directors. Since the approval of the Board of Directors was not obtained, the charge-sheet is liable to be quashed and finding of guilt by Inquiry committee on the allegedly incompetent charges is violative of principles of natural justices. The charge sheet dated 21.08.2018 was issued to the petitioner and the same was sent through his reporting officer i.e. Director (Technical) and was communicated by Senior Manager HR. It was duly approved by the MD & CEO of PLL. The initiation of disciplinary proceedings is in accordance with the applicable rules of the company, including delegation of authority Manual, HR policy amended from time to time and is also not in variance with the Companies Act 2013 and rules thereof - Section 4 of the standard of conducts and performance of the HR Policy (PLL) which is duly approved by the Board of Directors and applicable on the employees including the petitioner clearly lays down the process to be followed by HR department in consultation with the functional head and the MD & CEO for any action including disciplinary proceedings against a delinquent employee and powers of the MD & CEO (respondent No. 6). Thus, MD and CEO is the competent authority and has full power for initiation of disciplinary action against any officer of PLL. It is pertinent to mention here that during the hearing of the present petition, on 02.07.2019, this court has perused the original file whereby it is established that the MD & CEO has approved the issuance of the chargesheet - the arguments of the counsel for the petitioner has no help in the facts and circumstances of the present case. Petition disposed off.
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