Court No. - 37
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 41327 of 2017 Petitioner :- Smt. Abhilasha Pandey Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Pratibha Singh,Ashok Kumar Singh,O.P.S. Rathore Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Abhinava Upadhya,J.
The petitioner is Town Area Clerk in the Collectorate, Etah. She was placed under suspension by order dated 2.4.2017 pending enquiry. It appears that an enquiry was concluded and papers were forwarded to the Collector but no decision was being taken and, therefore the petitioner was constrained to file writ petition No.37362 of 2017 and this Court by order dated 21.8.2017 directed the District Magistrate to take final decision.
It appears that pursuant to the aforesaid order now the Collector has passed a fresh order directing fresh enquiry on the ground that earlier enquiry officer was also an officer who had conducted the preliminary enquiry and, therefore, under the U.P. Government Servant (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1999 such officer who had conducted the preliminary enquiry cannot conduct the final enquiry.
Upon going through the aforesaid rules there is no such provision which prohibits the authority who had conducted the preliminary enquiry to conduct the final enquiry. Further it is to be noted that on one pretext or the other the petitioner has been kept under suspension since April, 2017 and even today continues under suspension. It is also relevant to note that the employee cannot be placed under suspension in perpetuity as suspension cannot be said to be a punishment but so far as the enquiry is concerned, this Court would not interfere in the enquiry but keeping the petitioner under suspension for such a long time does call for interference.
In case, the authorities choose to pursue the enquiry against the petitioner they are at liberty to do so but the petitioner cannot remain under suspension for indefinite period. As such, it is directed that the petitioner be immediately re-instated. However, the enquiry may be continue at the behest of the authority concerned. The writ petition is allowed to the aforesaid extent.
Order Date :- 27.2.2018 VPC