Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24268 of 2019 Petitioner :- Budhiram Respondent :- State Of U P And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Chandra Bhushan Yadav,Mustaqeem Ahmad Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Yashwant Varma,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.
Bearing in mind the nature of the challenge which is raised to the order impugned and the grounds on which it is assailed, the learned Standing Counsel submits that the ends of justice would merit the matter being remitted to the District Magistrate for consideration afresh.
The petitioner who is an elected Gram Pradhan is aggrieved by the order impugned in terms of which his financial and administrative powers have been seized. The sole allegation which is laid against the petitioner is that in the muster roll a date of 9 March 2017 was entered as the date of commencement of work when in fact works were sanctioned only on 24 March 2017.
Learned counsel for the petitioner however draws the attention of the Court to the reply which was submitted by him, in which it was clearly stated that the mentioning of the date of 9 March 2017 was a mistake and clearly attributable to inadvertence since all other details as disclosed clearly established that payments were disbursed only after 25 March 2017. The order impugned, it becomes relevant to note, does not rest upon any evidence of the petitioner having made payments prior to 24 March 2017 nor does it rely upon any material which may establish that the petitioner had made payments between 9 March 2017 and 24 March 2017. There is also no consideration of the reply as submitted by the petitioner.
Faced with this situation, learned Standing Counsel submits that the matter would merit being remitted to the concerned Collector for decision afresh.
Accordingly and with the consent of parties, this writ petition is allowed. The impugned order dated 6 July 2019 is hereby quashed. It is however left open to the District Magistrate, if so chosen and advised, to proceed in the matter afresh and in accordance with the 1997 Rules.
Order Date :- 25.7.2019 Arun K. Singh (Yashwant Varma, J.)