HC refuses relief to railway officer, flags attempt to stall probe

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh high court has dismissed a railway officer's plea challenging the denial of his chosen defence assistant, observing that it appeared to be an attempt to delay a departmental inquiry pending for nearly a decade.Thepetitioner, currentlyan Assistant Electrical Engineer (AEE) with theSouth EastCentral Railway (SECR), was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Aug\ 2015 in a trap case involving allegations of illegal gratification. Following his arrest, the railway administrationinitiatedmajor penalty proceedings against him in Aug 2016.During the inquiry, he sought appointment of a specific retired railway employee as his defence assistant, which was rejected as per Railway Board rules. His earlier pleas before the Central Administrative Tribunal in 2017 and 2019 were also dismissed. A fresh application filed in 2023 was rejected by the CAT, citing res judicata. A division bench comprising Justice Sanjay S Agrawal and Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad upheld the tribunal's decision. The bench noted that the departmental inquiry has been stretched for 10 years and the petitioner's insistence on a specific individual appeared to be a tactic to obstruct the finality of the case.The court clarified that the 2024 amendment does notoperateretrospectively to reopen settled judicial findings. The court remarked that interference in departmental proceedings at an interlocutory stage is limited. "Delay tactics adopted by a party cannot be permitted to defeat the course of justice," the bench stated, adding that the principle of res judicata applies to writ petitions to ensure finality in litigation.The petition was dismissed without any order as to costs, clearing the way for the conclusion of the long-pending inquiry.