Court No. - 25
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 3180 of 2019 Petitioner :- C/M Tileshwari Devi Mahavidyalaya Gaura And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Saurabh Singh,Amit Saxena Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Ajay Bhanot,J.
The petitioner has assailed the orders dated 25.11.2018 and 11.01.2019 passed by the respondent No.2. By means of the orders assailed in the instant writ petition, the petitioner has been indicted for allegedly facilitating the mass copying in the examination. Penalty of Rs.2 Lakh has been imposed upon the petitioner-Institution on the pain of not permitting the students to appear in the examination for non-payment of the penalty amount.
Sri Amit Saxena, learned counsel assisted by Sri Saurabh Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the order impugned visits the petitioner with penal consequences. However, the order has been passed by adopting a procedure not known to law. The order has been passed in absolute violation of principles of natural justice. He next contends that the show cause notice issued to the petitioner was vague and lacks material particulars. Further, the show cause notice was founded on untenable grounds which have no co-relation with the material in the record. In the meeting of the examination committee, there was no allegation of mass copying. Only a solitary instance of use of unfair- means was recorded in the aforesaid meeting. A show cause notice and the proceedings have been initiated on the foot of such material. Further, the order impugned finds that there was mass copying which is beyond the terms of the show cause notice.
The petitioner was disabled from tendering an effective reply on account of the aforesaid infirmities in the show cause notice. However, to prove his bona-fides, the petitioner tendered his reply refuting the allegations against him. A specific ground for non-disclosure of the roll numbers of the students, who had allegedly used unfair-means, were asked for. The discrepancies in the bar code were also highlighted which obviated any possibility of use of unfair-means.
None of these grounds finds any consideration by the University authorities.
Sri Ajit Kumar Singh, learned counsel assisted by Sri Prakash Rai, learned counsel for the respondent-University in his usual fairness on the basis of instructions and from the record submits that there was non compliance of the principles of natural justice while passing the impugned order.
In view of the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parities, this Court finds that the orders dated 25.11.2018 and 11.01.2019 were passed in violation of principles of natural justice. The prejudice caused to the petitioner is beyond recall. The orders are arbitrary, illegal and cannot stand. The orders dated 25.11.2018 (Annexure-9 to the writ petition) and 11.01.2019 (Annexure-11 to the writ petition) passed by the respondent No.2-Jannayak Chandrashekhar Azaad University, Ballia are quashed.
With consent of parties, the matter is remitted back to the respondents authorities for fresh adjudication as per law.
The writ petition is allowed.
Order Date :- 26.2.2019/Ashish Tripathi