Justice, 5 years after death

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, May 15: A man accused of theft in 1985 got justice at the AP High Court on Friday, five years after his death. Singareni Collieries, the employer, pursued the case even after the man was cleared thrice at different levels.
Edla Chinna Mallaiah fo-ught for nearly two decades to clear his name and died in 2004.

A division bench comprising Justice V. Eswaraiah and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar declared Mallaiah innocent.

Mallaiah, employed by Singareni Collieries in 1981, was dismissed on February 5, 1985, on the charge of theft of detonators from the company’s storehouse of explosives.
According to the company, Mallaiah had taken away 40 detonators from the magazine clerk on January 9, 1984.

A police case was registered against Mallaiah and the company initiated a departmental inquiry against him. According to the petitioner, he did not attend duty that day.

The judicial magistrate at Sultanabad acquitted Mallaiah, but the company dismissed him based on an adverse report submitted by the enquiry officer.
Mallaiah challenged the removal in the Industrial Disputes Tribunal. Faulting the company, the tribunal ordered his reinstatement with back wages in 1993. The company moved the High Court against the order.

A single judge dismissed the Singareni Collieries case in the year 2000 and confirmed the award of the tribunal. Despite these three adverse verdicts, Singareni Collieries appealed to a division bench against the single judge’s order. During the hearing of the case,Mallaiah died on June 30, 2004.

In its judgment, the division bench of the AP High Court found lapses in the chargesheet and the inquiry proceedings. “It was not known how a person will be able to take the detonators from the premises of the company, which is surrounded by a compound wall with full security.”

Though Mallaiah superannuated on attaining the age of 60 years by January 17, 1989, the management pursued the case.

The court held that Mallaiah’s legal heir is entitled to all the consequential benefits as per the 1993 award of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal.