KARACHI, Dec 15: The Supreme Court has suspended operation of the show-cause notice issued by the Sindh government while granting leave to appeal to petitioners who are superintending/executive engineers in the service of the provincial government.

A division bench, consisting of Justice Syed Deedar Husain Shah and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, granted leave to appeal to petitioners Arshad Ahmed Khawaja, Ghulam Mohammed Memon, Aftab Ahmed, Madanlal, Jan Mohammed Soomro and Amir Bakhsh Khushak.

They were represented by Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Khalid Jawed Khan, advocates.

The government had issued identical show-cause notices to the petitioners in which it was stated that after careful scrutiny of their service record, the competent authority was satisfied that, for reasons mentioned in the notice, that they were not fit for retention in service and it was expedient in public interest to order their retirement from service.

The reason given in the show-cause notice was that they were awarded minor penalty of censure twice, in the years 1984 and 1988. Similar notices were also given in all the show-cause notices.

The petitioners had contended that the minor penalty which was imposed long ago could not be used as a ground for compulsorily retiring the petitioners under section 13 of the Sindh Civil Servants Act (SCSA) of 1973. These were past and closed transactions and could not be reopened to inflict further penalty, let alone to impose a major penalty. The petitioners contended that this amounted to punishing the petitioners twice over for the same offence.

They had also submitted that section 13 of the SCSA 1973 only allowed compulsory retirement in public interest which should be preceded by show-cause notices.

The reason given in the impugned show-cause notices were no reasons in th eyes of law. This was a purely mala fide exercise in clear abuse of the power conferred under section 13. This also demonstrated that no legitimate reasons were available with the department which could justify such a drastic action. All the petitioners were promoted after imposition of minor penalties in the past.

The petitioners further contended that there was nothing in the show-cause notices to which they could reply. Once the petitioners admitted that they had been subjected to minor penalties in the past that sealed their fate and compulsory retirement was a foregone conclusion. The show-cause notices were nothing more than an eyewash.

While granting leave to appeal and suspending the operation of the show- cause notices, the Supreme Court observed that such blanket power could not be granted to the executive authorities.

EOBI’s plea rejected: The Supreme Court has dismissed the petition of the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution challenging the Federal Service Tribunal’s order to reinstate 15 employees of the EOBI.

A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Nazim Husain Siddiqui, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, at the Karachi registry, rejected the EOBI’s petition.

The court upheld the judgment of the FST which ordered re-instatement of 15 employees who were removed from service without any inquiry, notice or disciplinary proceedings.

Earlier, when the appeal came up for hearing, Muzaffar-ul-Haq, advocate, appearing for the EOBI, said the respondents had been appointed on political basis.

The counsel for the respondents, Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada assisted by Syed Khalid Shah, advocate, denied this contention.

After hearing both the sides, the court dismissed the appeal filed by the EOBI.