Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 13065 of 2018 Petitioner :- Ashok Kumar Singh Respondent :- District Administrative Commitee Primary Agri. Credit Societies Centralized And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Ram Akbal Upadhyay Counsel for Respondent :- Sujit Kumar Rai
Hon'ble B. Amit Sthalekar,J.
Heard Shri R.A. Upadhyay, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Sujit Kumar Rai, learned counsel for the respondents.
The petitioner in the writ petition is seeking quashing of the order dated 18.05.2018 whereby he has been placed under suspension.
The allegation against the petitioner is that while purchasing wheat from the farmers he made deduction of 2 kgm. per quintal and while making delivery of wheat to the F.C.I. he has taken bribe of Rs.2,000/- per truck. In this regard a video tape has also been made and circulated.
The plea taken by the petitioner is that a Member Secretary can neither place the petitioner under suspension nor appoint any inquiry officer.
This is not correct. This Court in a Full Bench decision reported in (1997) 3 UPLBEC 1747 (Ram Chandra Pandey Vs. District Administrative Committee) has held that the Member/Secretary can suspend a member of the centralised service under Regulation 59 (1) (f) (i) in the absence of a decision of the District Committee.
In this view of the matter so far as the power of the Member Secretary of the District Administrative Committee is concerned, the order of suspension cannot be faulted on the ground of jurisdiction.
So far as the allegations are concerned, the same, prima facie, appear to be serious in nature and I do not find any good ground for interference with the same.
The writ petition lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed.
However,, in case if no chargesheet has been issued to the petitioner and the respondents intend to hold a departmental enquiry against him, they shall issue a charge sheet to the petitioner and appoint enquiry officer within 15 days from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order and thereafter conclude the departmental enquiry within a further period of three months.
It is expected that the petitioner will fully cooperate with the departmental enquiry and no unnecessary adjournments will be granted to either of the parties.
Order Date :- 29.5.2018 N Tiwari