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Judgment
All these writ petitions have been filed by the petitioners, who are the vocational training providers (VTPs) under the Skill Development Initiative
Scheme launched by the Government of India in the year 2007 with a prayer to issue direction upon the respondents to forthwith honour the bills
submitted by them in relation to the training provided by them in various vocational courses such as: Banking and Accounting, Garment Making,
Beauty Culture and Hair Dressing, Fashion Designing, Spoken English and Communication Skill, Information and Communication Technology etc. to
the interested candidates under the said scheme.
Learned counsel for the petitioners puts reliance on the orders dated 11.01.2019 and 31.07.2019 passed by a coordinate Bench of this Court in W.P.
(C) No. 181/2018 and W.P.(C) No. 1672/2019 respectively in the cases of two VTPs whereby without entering into the claim of the said VTPs, the
said writ petitions have been disposed of giving liberty to them to file fresh representations before the respondent No.3 with a direction to the said
respondent to take decision in accordance with law preferably within eight weeks from the date of receipt of the copies of the said orders and submits
that similar orders may also be passed in the present writ petitions.
Ms. Richa Sanchita, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State-respondents, while relying on the supplementary counter affidavit dated
16.12.2019 filed on behalf of the respondents in W.P.(C) No. 2162 of 2018, submits that the respondent No.2 vide his letter as contained in memo No.
408 dated 28.03.2018, requested the Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department, Government of Jharkhand for investigation of
the irregularities which have taken place in the matters of VTPs and as such the files of the VTPS are also in the custody of the Vigilance
Department, Government of Jharkhand. It is further submitted that the respondent No.2 sent further letter as contained in memo No. 677 dated
15.04.2019 to the Director General of Police (ACB), Ranchi seeking current status of the enquiry in the matter. Moreover, an FIR being Pithoriya
P.S. Case No. 72/2015 dated 03.07.2015 has already been lodged against one of the VTPs i.e. Utthan Institute of Technology, Pithoriya, Kanke.
Another FIR i.e. Doranda P.S. Case No. 91/2016 dated 01.04.2016 has also been lodged in this regard. It has also been stated in the said
supplementary counter affidavit that the respondent No.2 vide letter dated 22.11.2019, has requested the Director General of Police (ACB), Ranchi
for providing the enquiry report(s) so that the steps/decision may be taken on the respective claims made by the VTPs.
Having heard learned counsel for the parties and keeping in view the statements made in the supplementary counter affidavit dated 16.12.2019 that
the matter with regard to different VTPs including the petitioners is under enquiry before the Anti-Corruption Bureau, no order for consideration of the
petitioners’ claim presented before the respondents can be passed at this stage. It appears that the pendency of the enquiry before the Anti-
Corruption Bureau and lodging of the FIRs against some of the VTPs were not brought to the notice of the co-ordinate Bench while passing the
orders dated 11.01.2019 and 31.07.2019 in the aforesaid writ petitions. However, it is expected that the respondent No.2 shall sincerely pursue the
matter before the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Jharkhand so that the pending enquiry in relation to the VTPs is concluded without any undue delay.
The present writ petitions are accordingly disposed of.