Chief Justice's Court
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 38930 of 2018 Petitioner :- Satish Kumar Chowdhary And Naga Chowdhary Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Brij Raj,Ishwar Kumar Upadhyay,Manu Khare Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Govind Mathur,Chief Justice Hon'ble Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J.
Under the order impugned dated 31.10.2018, the District Magistrate, Ballia cancelled the Character Certificate dated 16.3.2018 issued by the District Magistrate himself.
The only argument advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the order dated 31.10.2018 has been passed behind the back of the petitioner without providing any opportunity to the petitioner to explain the circumstances.
According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, a valuable right created in favour of the petitioner under the Character Certificate dated 16.3.2018 and that could not have been snatched away without following the principles of natural justice.
Per contra, learned Standing Counsel submitted that the petitioner was accused in certain cases and ignoring that fact the certificate dated 16.3.2018 was issued and therefore the District Magistrate, Ballia on knowing about the cases concerned rightly cancelled the Character Certificate dated 16.3.2018 so issued.
Heard both the learned counsel.
The issuance of a Character Certificate is purely an administrative function of the District Magistrate, but such certificate is usually required for several purposes by a citizen including to have an employment and other professions. In absence of such a certificate, a citizen can be denied from several assignments and therefore, if an existing character certificate is required to be cancelled, it is always desirable to provide hearing to the persons concerned.
In the case in hand, admittedly, no such opportunity was given to the petitioner, hence the order impugned dated 31.10.2018 deserves to be quashed.
Accordingly, the writ petition is allowed.
The order dated 31.10.2018 is quashed by keeping the District Magistrate, Ballia at liberty to pass appropriate order after providing opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. The petitioner shall appear before the District Magistrate, Ballia within a period of 15 days from today and shall submit a certified copy of this order to him. The District Magistrate, Ballia, thereafter shall fix a date for hearing and decide the matter expeditiously as far as possible within a period of four weeks subsequent thereto.
Till the disposal of the matter by the District Magistrate, Ballia, the Character Certificate dated 16.3.2018 shall not be utilized by th petitioner for any purpose.
Order Date :- 26.2.2019 SB (Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J) (Govind Mathur,C.J.)