Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner was appointed as Assistant Engineer on 24.12.1980. However, he was appointed by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission to the post of Assistant Engineer in Agricultural Engineering Department in the year 1982, subsequently, his service was regularized with retrospective effect from 24.12.1980. Therefore, his name was also found in Sl.No.97 in the seniority list of Assistant Engineers as on 01.01.1985. While so, he was issued with a charge memo containing three charges under 17(b) of TNCS (D & A) Rules on 14.03.1995. The petitioner submitted a detailed explanation on 12.04.1995. Disagreed with the explanation, the first respondent appointed an I.A.S officer as an Enquiry Officer. After completion of the enquiry, the enquiry officer filed a report to the Government stating that the charges were not proved. Subsequently, G.O.(2D) No.128 (AAVI) was issued by the Government dated 12.06.2001 dropping all the charges against the petitioner. However, in another Departmental proceedings initiated against the petitioner under 17(a) of TNCS (D & A) Rules dated 03.06.1998 by the second respondent, on completion of enquiry, he was imposed with a punishment of stoppage of increment for one year without cumulative effect by an order dated 15.02.2000. As against that, the petitioner filed an appeal and the same was also rejected by order dated 21.03.2002. Aggrieved by the rejection order, the petitioner filed a review petition and the same was also rejected on 02.08.2005 but in the meanwhile, the petitioner was given promotion on 17.07.2003 to the post of Assistant Executive Engineer.
