NAIK MANUBHAI SOMABHAI Vs. PRESIDENT / SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is filed for the purpose of seeking the following reliefs :-

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that he petitioner was appointed in the respondent - School which is an aided private secondary school on the post of Peon. The petitioner was appointed in a reserved category post of Scheduled Tribe with effect from 01.05.1995. The competent authority had issued the certificate of Scheduled Tribe to the petitioner on 12.03.1992. As a result of this, pursuant to the advertisement issued for the post of Peon for Scheduled Tribe category, the petitioner applied and the selection committee selected the petitioner and the selection of the petitioner was approved by the office of the District Education Officer and thereafter, with effect from 01.05.1995 the petitioner came to be appointed and was drawing salary under the Direct Payment Scheme. It is further the case of the petitioner that one Rameshbhai Malabhai Naik complaint before the Collector, Vadodara that the petitioner has secured the job by producing the false caste certificate of the Scheduled Tribe that he is not belonging to the said caste. Resultantly, the management sought explanation from the petitioner which led the petitioner to approach the Gujarat Secondary Education Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the "Tribunal") by way of application being Application No. 479 of 1995. The said application was found to be premature. Resultantly, vide order dated 11.07.2003 the same was disposed of. Simultaneously, pursuant to the complaint made by the said third party the Caste Scrutiny Committee inquired into the matter and on 31.12.2001 an order was passed that the petitioner is not belonging to the 'Dholi Bhil' community and, therefore, the caste certificate issued by the Mamlatdar dated 12.03.1992 stood cancelled. As per the say of the petitioner, while cancelling the caste certificate, no attribution is made upon the petitioner, but on earlier occasion, the Mamlatdar issued certificate without verifying the details and therefore, it cannot be said according to the petitioner that the petitioner fraudulently obtained caste certificate. On the basis of the cancellation of the caste certificate, departmental inquiry was conducted wherein the charges were held to be proved. The District Education Officer on 26.02.2009 accorded approval to the proposal of the management and on the basis of the said proposal, the services of the petitioner stood terminated vide order dated 28.02.2009 and simultaneously, the management passed another order seeking recovery of salary from the petitioner from the date of the appointment till the date of termination.

(3.) Feeling aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner approached once again the learned Tribunal by way of submitting an application being Application No. 40 of 2009 and the learned Tribunal at the relevant point of time was pleased to grant stay against the recovery. Simultaneously, on the basis of the cancellation of the caste certificate, a criminal case was registered against the petitioner wherein, the learned Principal Judicial Magistrate First Class, Savli by order dated 13.05.2011 passed an order of acquittal in favour of the petitioner. Despite the aforesaid circumstance, the learned Tribunal vide order dated 03.05.2003/06.05.2013 rejected the application of the petitioner with regard to the recovery. It has been observed that the salaries from the petitioner may not be recovered in view of the order dated 04.03.2009. It is against this judgment and order passed by the learned Tribunal, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of the present petition challenging the same.