Gopal Ram vs R.I.G.S. and Others

Hon''ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—The petitioner was appointed as Class IV employee in Government Girls Inter College, Ghazipur by letter of appointment dated 5.1.1989 issued by Principal/appointing authority after due consideration i.e. after advertisement of vacancy and after selection made by Selection Committee. By means of impugned order dated 7.4.1989 the services of the petitioner was terminated referring to the direction made by Regional Inspector for Girls School 5th Region, Varanasi.

It is said that the aforesaid termination has been made only on the ground that Selection Committee was wrongly constituted. However, before passing the impugned order no show cause notice or opportunity was afforded to him though the appointment was made after due selection.

In the counter affidavit it is not disputed that before passing the impugned order no show cause notice or opportunity of hearing was afforded. It cannot be disputed that the impugned order has affected petitioner''s civil rights and the same has been done in utter violation of principles of natural justice.

In case of State of Orissa Vs. Dr. (Miss) Binapani Dei and Others, the Apex Court said:

It is true that the order is administrative in character, but even an administrative order which involves civil consequences as already stated must be made consistently with the rules of natural justice after informing the first respondent of the case of the State, the evidence in support thereof and after giving an opportunity to the first respondent of being heard and meeting or explaining the evidence. No such steps were admittedly taken; the High Court was, in our judgment, right in setting aside the order of the State.

The Apex Court in Bhagwan Shukla Vs. Union of India and others, , has held that where the payment of employee is wrongly fixed and re-fixed, the same can be done only after giving an opportunity to the person concerned and order passed in violation of principle of natural justice cannot be sustained. In para 3 of the judgment the Apex Court observed as under:-

The appellant has obviously been visited with civil consequences but he had been granted no opportunity to show cause against the reduction of his basic pay. He was not even put on notice before his pay was reduced by the department and the order came to be made behind his back without following any procedure known to law. There has, thus, been a flagrant violation of the principles of natural justice and the applicant has been made to suffer huge financial loss without being heard. Fair play in action warrants that no such order which has the effect of an employee suffering civil consequences should be passed without putting the (sic employee) concerned to notice and giving him a hearing in the matter. Since, that was not done, the order (memorandum) dated 25.7.1991, which was impugned before the Tribunal could not certainly bee sustained and the Central Administrative Tribunal fell in error in dismissing the petition of the appellant. The order of the Tribunal deserves to be set aside.

In the circumstances without looking into further details disclosed in the counter affidavit, in my view, this writ petition deserve to be allowed on the ground of violation of principles of natural justice in passing the impugned order which affects the petitioner and result in civil consequences.

The writ petition is allowed. The impugned order 07.04.1989 passed by Principal, Government Girls Inter College, Ghazipur (Annexure 6 to the writ petition) is hereby quashed. The respondents have however liberty to pass fresh order after giving due opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.