Court No. - 5
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 5507 of 2021 Petitioner :- Poonam Pandey Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sanjay Kumar Mishra Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Awadhesh Kumar,Ran Vijay Singh
Hon'ble Saral Srivastava,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Standing Counsel for respondent no.1, Sri Awadhesh Kumar, learned counsel for respondent nos.2 & 5 and Sri R.V. Singh, learned counsel for respondent no.3.
The petitioner was appointed as Assistant Teacher in Junior Basic High School on 13.02.2009. She was posted at Primary School, Melaya Madanpur, Block- Rehara Bazar, District Balrampur. Thereafter, petitioner was promoted on the post of Headmistress and was posted at Primary School, Telia Ratanpur, Block Rehra Bazar, District Balrampur.
On the application of the petitioner for inter-district transfer, she was transferred to District Basti where she joined on 30.08.2016.
It appears that an enquiry against the petitioner has been initiated for several charges, one of which is that petitioner has produced two Pan Cards. The petitioner has been allowed to continue as Headmistress, however, there is no order passed by the respondents-authorities suspending the petitioner or any adverse order has been passed by the respondents stopping the salary of the petitioner.
In the aforesaid backdrop, petitioner has prayed for a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to release the arrears of salary as well as to pay current salary to the petitioner, and conclude the enquiry against her expeditiously, within a time bound period.
This Court on 07.07.2021 direction the learned counsel for respondent no.2 to seek the instructions in the matter.
Learned counsel for the respondent no.2 on instructions, which is taken on record, states that enquiry against the petitioner is pending and there is serious charge against the petitioner that she has obtained the appointment on the basis of forged mark sheet, and accordingly, he submits that petitioner is not entitled to the salary as the enquiry against her is undergoing.
Be that as it may, this Court in the case of Orooj Vs. State of
U.P. and Others 2019 (1) ADJ 354 has held that if there is no adverse order against the petitioner and petitioner is continuously working and veracity of the petitioner's appointment is still to be examined, the respondents cannot stop the salary of the petitioner. Paragraph 10 of the said judgement is being extracted hereinbelow:-
"10. Concededly, there is no adverse order against the petitioner till date. The validity of his appointment is still to be examined. The petitioner is duly working on the post since his initial appointment and was getting salary consequent to the appointment having been approved by District Inspector of Schools by order dated 24.5.2016. In such circumstances, this Court also does not find any justifiable reason on record to withhold salary of the petitioner, while the enquiry is in progress."
Since, respondent-authority has not given any reason in the instruction for stopping the salary of the petitioner nor has stated that any adverse order stopping the salary of the petitioner has been passed, therefore, in this view of the fact, this Court finds that the petitioner is entitled to arrears of salary and payment of current salary in terms of the judgement of this Court in the case of Orooj (supra).
Accordingly, this Court directs the respondent no.2-District Basic Education Officer, Basti to release the arrears of salary and pay current salary to the petitioner. This Court further commands respondent no.2 to conclude the enquiry pending against the petitioner in accordance with law expeditiously, preferably within a period of three months from the date of production of copy of this order downloaded from the official website of High Court, Allahabad.
It is needless to say that petitioner shall cooperate in the enquiry proceedings, and in case the petitioner does not cooperate in the enquiry, the respondent no.2 may proceed exparte against her and conclude the enquiry within the aforesaid period.
The writ petition is disposed off subject to the observations made above.
Order Date :- 28.7.2021 Sattyarth