Court No. - 23
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24538 of 2018 Petitioner :- Rihana Begum Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Arvind Kumar Bhardwaj Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Salil Kumar Rai,J.
Supplementary affidavit filed on behalf of the petitioner is taken on record.
The present writ petition has been filed praying for a writ of mandamus prohibiting respondent no. 2 i.e. District Magistrate, Sambhal to proceed with any inquiry in pursuance to the order dated 11.07.2018 passed by respondent no.2.
It has been argued by counsel for the petitioner that the impugned order dated 11.07.2018 instituting preliminary inquiry against petitioner under the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as, 'Act, 1947') read with Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Removal of Pradhans, Up- Pradhans and Members) Enquiry Rules, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as, 'Rules, 1997') has been passed only to harass the petitioner in as much as in a previous inquiry held on the same allegations, the petitioner was exonerated of the charges. The alleged report of the previous inquiry has been annexed as annexure No. 4 to the writ petition.
I have perused the inquiry report dated 15.7.2017 annexed as annexure No. 4 to the writ petition.
The said inquiry report was submitted by the Block Development Officer, Sambhal, who is not a District Level Officer and, therefore, the inquiry conducted by the Block Development Officer, Sambhal was not a preliminary inquiry under Section 95(1)(g) of the Act, 1947 and Rule 4 of the Rules, 1997.
In view of the aforesaid, no jurisdictional error has been committed by respondent No. 2 while passing the impugned order dated 11.07.2018.
For the aforesaid reasons, the writ petition lack merits and is, hereby, dismissed.
Order Date :- 30.7.2018 Sattyarth