VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

516 DECISION - 235
(B) Misconduct — good and sufficient reasons
Misconduct covers acts committed not only in the
discharge of duties but also acts done outside the
employment. Disciplinary proceedings can be
started for mismanagement or misappropriation of
funds of Railway Cooperative Societies, Institutions,
Clubs etc. Penalties may be imposed for good and
sufficient reasons.
Samar Nandy Chaudhary vs. Union of India,
1985(2) SLR CAL 751
The appellant was Fireman under the North Eastern Frontier
Railway Administration (NEFR). In 1973, he was elected as the
Secretary of the NEFR cooperative Stores. A charge-sheet was
issued in respect of certain alleged acts of misconduct committed by
the appellant as Secretary of the said Stores.
Rule 3 of the Railway Service (Conduct) Rules, 1966 inter
alia required that every railway servant shall at all times maintain
absolute integrity. He was also forbidden from doing anything which
was unbecoming of a railway or government servant. These
provisions are wide enough to include not only acts done by a railway
servant in discharge of his official duties but also acts done outside
his employment.
In terms of the Railway Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules,
1968, penalties may be imposed on a railway servant for good and
sufficient reasons. Whether there were good and sufficient reasons
and whether there was prima facie evidence are matters which would
have to be considered appropriately by the disciplinary authority before
any action was initiated under the Disciplinary Rules. The Calcutta
High Court held that if a servant is guilty of such a crime outside his
service as to make it unsafe for a master to keep him in his employment,