KARACHI, Aug 25: The Sindh High Court directed the sales tax collectorate on Wednesday to dispose of any proceedings pending against one of its deputy superintendents suspended in January 2000 within 90 days.
The petitioner, Tahir Ashraf Durrani, submitted through Advocate Syed Sami Ahmed that he joined the collectorate as a stenotypist in 1980 and was working as a deputy superintendent when he received a suspension notice on January 13, 2000. He was neither served a show cause notice, nor a charge-sheet but the period of his suspension was extended from time to time till Oct 12, 2001.
The petitioner was not allowed to resume service after the expiry of the suspension period nor was he served a dismissal order. In fact, he maintained, there was no adverse order in the field for him to challenge before the service tribunal and he could only request the high court to extend him relief in exercise of its extraordinary jurisdiction.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, noted the submission of Advocate Sami Ahmed that a civil servant could not approach the high court for redress of his grievance relating to terms and condition of service in view of Article 212 of the Constitution.
However, in case of hardship and injustice that could not be agitated by the aggrieved person before any other forum, the court should come to his rescue. The counsel relied on a 1996 Supreme Court judgment that declared that a civil servant placed under suspension without any proceedings was competent to approach the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution for a direction for an early disposal of the departmental proceedings against him.
The bench disposed the petition of in terms of the SC judgment and asked the sales tax collectorate to conclude proceedings, if any, against the petitioner within 90 days.
DIRECTIVE: The Sindh High Court directed a provincial attorney to ensure that a local councils service employee was given posting in accordance with the law. Shakeel Ahmed Mughal, former deputy town officer (engineering) of Baldia Town, submitted through Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh that he joined the service as an assistance executive engineer at Hyderabad in 1986.
He was serving in grade 18 in Baldia Town Committee when the post of deputy town officer (engineering) was omitted from the schedule of the committee's establishment.
His services were placed at the disposal of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal town committee by the local government department. However, he was not allowed to join as there was no post of DTO (engineering) in the committee. He was retransferred to the Liaquatabad town committee, which too had no post of DTO (engineering).
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, which heard the petition, observed that the case was peculiar. It did not merely involve the terms and conditions of service of a civil servant.
The petition called for judicial interference, it observed and asked Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan to ensure the posting of the petitioner in accordance with the law and rules.