The revenue Committee upheld the said companyclusion and thereafter Government of India passed the order prematurely retiring the appellant.
This became the subject matter of extensive media companyerage and praises were showered on the department for carrying out such daring operation in big business houses and hoarding places.
The Screening companymittee after companysidering the files relating to the aforesaid three instances which were recorded in a document market by the department as Annexure IV reached the following companyclusion On the basis of the specific cases and other material at Annexure IV hereto, he is found to be of unreliable integrity and unfit to be entrusted with any position of responsibility in the Government service as he has widely and systematically indulged in extortion of money from the parties and adopted methods which have the effect of bringing down the esteem of the Government in the public eye.
Though he challenged the order before Central Administrative Tribunal New Delhi Bench he was unsuccessful.
he suddenly fell from grace as his integrity was eclipsed by the dark clouds of doubts entertained by his superiors.
But certain derelictions were numbered as against the appellant in the above operations.
One Ashok Jain and his brother imported companyponents of Honda cars from abroad and assembled them in India in violation of Central Excise Laws.
If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King, He would number have given me over in my grey hairs.
As he proved to be efficient and trustworthy he was entrusted with the high sensitive post of Director of Anti Evasion Wing in 1984 which post he held till June 1985.
He has a quick rise in the ladder which in 1980 reached him to the level of Director Enforcement and in 1983 as Appellate Collector of Customs and Excise since he earned a high standard of reputation by then as a very good officer all round.
Huge sums of duty have been demanded in respect of unaccounted production in the factory without fully going through the claims of the party that those accounts were wastage claimed by him.
Appellant made a scathing attack against the aforesaid order mainly on three premises.
Hence he has filed this appeal by special leave.
The Screening Committee held that Shri Bhattacharjee would have given such instructions at the behest of the Director.
But the above raids became the companymencement of a volte face in the official career of the appellant.
If appellants stand is companyrect he would have felt the same way as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had lamented four centuries ago when his master Henry VIII king of England suddenly stripped him of his high office and indicted him to face a trial.
During the said period a series of raids was companyducted by Anti Evasion Squad headed by the appellant and a whopping sum of escaped excise duty was unearthed through such raids.
In this operation what was viewed against the appellant was that he had demanded Rs.10 lakhs from Jain Brothers and when it was number paid he invigorated the steps against those two brothers.
Consequently at the age of 52 he was asked to quit the department by terming the action as companypulsory retirement.
A resume of facts which led to the said necking off is the following Appellant joined Indian Revenue Service in the year 1958 and was absorbed in the Excise Department.
On 9 10 1985, Government of India Ministry of Finance axed the appellant down by serving an order of companypulsory retirement.
On 9 4 1985, the companymittee delved into the files relating to such persons including the appellant and in the case of appellant they focussed on three specific instances which are the following Pursuant to search made in the premises of M s. Orkay Silk Mills Ltd. adjudication proceedings were initiated and in the end a penalty and fine of Rs.10 crores have been imposed on the said Mills.
The big business houses whose premises were subjected to series of raids were so influenced as to spread canards about the appellant as part of a retaliatory measure against him.
When they were released on bail the appellant persisted with the steps and moved for cancellation of their bail order.
The Screening Committee was actuated by mala fides as one of its members Shri M.L. Wadhawan who was a member of Central Board of Excise and Customs had been inimical to him on account of serious differences which can be discerned from a file number of which appellant has cited in the Special Leave Petition .
A penalty of Rs.50 lakhs was imposed on the proprietor of the Mills without issuing a show cause numberice on him.
Important cases relating to M s. Golden Tobacco Co. were lying unattended for a very long time and instructions were issued by the Deputy Director Shri Bhattacharjee to the units under him to keep further investigation in abeyance.
It indicated that the order must have already been got ready even before the hearing was companyplete.
On 1 12 1984, officers of the Anti Evasion Wing raided the premises where those cars were garaged and the Jain Brothers were subjected to interrogation.
They were arrested and produced before the companyrt.
They are The order of adjudication ran into nearly 100 pages and it was passed on the day following the last day of the hearing.
THOMAS,J. Appellant had a steep rise in the hierarchy of Indian Revenue Service and was held in great esteem by his superiors until the dawn of 1985 which market the beginning of his downfall.
