Saroj Kumari vs The Director of Primary Education, to the Government of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla and The District Primary Education Officer, Solan, District Solan, H.P.

Justice Deepak Gupta, J.—This appeal is directed against the judgment, dated 9.3.2009, passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court, whereby he not only dismissed the writ petition filed by the petitioner but also held that it was open to the State Government to recover the salary paid to the petitioner from 1988 onwards. Admittedly, the petitioner who is working as a JBT, has obtained the requisite JBT certificate from Union Teacher''s Training Centre, Rajpura Town. The question whether such institution was authorized to issue such certificates was subject matter of various Original Applications wherein the erstwhile H.P. State Administrative Tribunal set aside the action of the State Government in holding the said certificates to be fake/not genuine only on the ground that no opportunity had been given to the teachers to put forward their case. Thereafter, the State went to the Apex Court, which directed that inquiry can be held after associating the concerned parties. After inquiry, it was found that the certificates were fake. Thereafter, the services of the petitioner were also terminated.

The grievance of the petitioner is that she had not been given a separate notice while holding the inquiry. There is no dispute with regard to this fact. However, the main question is whether the petitioner had qualified her examination. From the facts placed on record, it is apparent that the Union Teacher''s Training Centre, Rajpura Town had no authority whatsoever to issue certificates of its own. It could at best be a centre of some recognized University or institution. In the case of the petitioner, there is no certificate issued by the Registrar, Departmental Exam. Allahabad, U.P. placed on record to show that she had passed any such examination. No doubt, the petitioner has not been directly issued a notice for this inquiry, but we cannot loose sight of the fact that in the inquiry conducted pursuant to the orders of the Apex Court, 284 candidates appeared before the Inquiry Officer, who claimed to have obtained the JBT qualification from the Union Teacher''s Training Centre, Rajpura Town, which, in turn, claimed to be a Centre of the Departmental Exam., Allahabad, U.P. The Inquiry Officer found that in all the 284 cases, the certificates procured by the candidates were fabricated or fake. While coming to the conclusion, the Inquiry Officer found that whereas the certificates were purported to be signed by different persons, these persons were not holding the posts of Registrar, Departmental Exam., Allahabad, U.P.

In the present case, there is no certificate whatsoever issued by the Registrar, Departmental Exam., Allahabad, U.P. Therefore, only on the basis of the certificate issued by the Centre at Rajpura Town, it could not be said that the petitioner had fulfilled the necessary qualifications. Therefore, on the face of it, her certificate could not be relied upon. The learned Single Judge has rightly decided the matter and we feel that no inference is called for as far as this aspect of the case is concerned. However, as far as the direction of the learned Single Judge that recovery of pay be made from the petitioner, is concerned, we set aside the same in view of the fact that this was not the case set up bythe State Government and furthermore, the petitioner had not mis-stated the facts when she got appointment, but had only placed her testimonials on record, which were accepted in as many as 284 other cases also. The appeal is allowed to this limited extent only and stands disposed of accordingly.