Gandhinagar

The Gujarat High Court has overturned a charge sheet issued against a government employee just before her retirement. Justice A.S. Supehia led a bench that reviewed an appeal challenging a May 2024 order from a single-judge bench, which had previously dismissed the appellant’s writ petition. The appellant, a Director of Accounts and Treasury, received the charge sheet in May 2021, with three allegations, while she was set to retire in September 2022.

In her appeal, the appellant pointed out that two of the charges had already been dropped by the state government. The remaining charge, dating back to 2013, claimed that she failed to obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) before renewing her passport. The court found that this did not meet the definition of misconduct according to the Gujarat Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, nor did it align with guidance from the Ministry of External Affairs.

The bench, which included Justice Gita Gopi, noted that the charge sheet did not address the significant delay in issuing the charge. Citing previous Supreme Court cases, the High Court deemed the third charge invalid, describing the appellant’s actions as a minor lapse rather than serious misconduct. The court ruled in favor of the appellant, awarding her ₹10,000 in costs, which could be recovered from the official responsible for the charge sheet.