BAIJU N. RAJEETH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a Teacher in a Music College, along with another, was placed under suspension on allegations made by three students. They were issued show cause notices and later, memo of charges, essentially charging them with conduct unbecoming of government servants. Allegations, fundamentally, relate to alleged sexual harassment, including invitation of girl students for illicit sexual relationship and also conduct by the teachers totally unfounded, in terms of their office.

(2.) There is some confusion as to whether the petitioner had been given a memo of charges or whether he was given three memos.

(3.) On our query, the learned counsel for the petitioner candidly stated, in our view, quite rightly, that the Director of Collegiate Education is the appointing authority to the category in which the petitioner was working. If that were so, it is that authority, which could have initiated disciplinary proceedings. The Director of Collegiate Education had issued only one memo of charges. The Enquiry Officer appears to have communicated it in the form of yet another show cause notice. The learned counsel for the petitioner would say that while the communication from the Principal contains only one allegation, it took a multi - faceted colour, when it came to the show cause notice issued by the disciplinary authority.