KARACHI, Dec 28: The Supreme Court issued notices on Monday in a Sindh government petition for leave to appeal against a provincial service tribunal order reinstating three information directors.

The respondent directors, Mohammad Khalid Sitai, Agha Ziauddin and Shamsul Haq Memon, were compulsorily retired by the provincial government in August 2000 for making advance payment of advertisement bills amounting to Rs 5,910,876, Rs 8,420,000 and Rs 725,000 to dummy dailies in disregard of the government policy and at a time when post-publication charges owed to regular newspapers were outstanding. The payments, it was alleged, were collusive.

The directors were found guilty by the authorized officer and the competent authority under the efficiency and discipline rules (EDR) on the basis of preliminary and final show-cause notices issued to them. However, they were acquitted by an anti- corruption court under Section 249-A of the criminal procedure code for lack of evidence.

They challenged their compulsory retirement in the Sindh Service Tribunal, which held that they could not have been punished with a major penalty under the EDR without a regular inquiry. If the nature of the alleged misconduct is such that a finding of fact cannot be recorded on it without recording of evidence, a regular inquiry cannot be dispensed with, the tribunal held. It set aside the appellants’ retirement and ordered their reinstatement in May 2003.

The provincial government submitted in its petition for leave to appeal that the service tribunal failed to consider the charges against the information directors and misapplied the law. There was no need to hold a regular inquiry in view of “the admitted facts” evident from the record.

Representing the petitioner government, Additional Advocate- General Qazi Khalid Ali submitted that if at all a regular inquiry was essential, the tribunal should have ordered one instead of making a reinstatement order.

A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Hamid Ali Mirza, directed that notices be issued in the petition to the respondents.