Disciplinary reduction below the direct recruitment post is impermissible and cannot be sustained in service law.

A Government servant directly recruited to a particular post cannot, as a disciplinary punishment, be reduced to a post lower than the one to which recruitment was made. Applying this principle, the Madras HC found that reducing a Record Clerk to the lower post of Office Assistant under Rule 17(b) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules was impermissible in law. The punishment was therefore unsustainable and was set aside.

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Issues: Whether the punishment of reduction from the post to which the petitioner was directly recruited to a lower post could be sustained in disciplinary proceedings.

Analysis: The petitioner had been directly recruited to the post of Record Clerk and was later reduced to the lower post of Office Assistant on the basis of proved charges in disciplinary proceedings under Rule 17(b) of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules. The order was challenged on the ground that such a reduction in rank, when imposed on a person directly recruited to a higher post, is impermissible in law. The Court applied the principle that reduction to a post lower than the one to which an employee was directly recruited affects the very basis of recruitment and cannot be sustained.

Conclusion: The punishment of reduction to a lower post was held unsustainable and was set aside in favour of the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: A Government servant directly recruited to a particular post cannot, by way of disciplinary punishment, be reduced to a post lower than the one to which the servant was recruited.

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