BIRENDRA BAHADUR SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER Birendra Bahadur Singh, lecturer in Mathematics, Bapu Maha Vidyalaya Inter College, Salimpur, Deoria (hereinafter referred to as the College), has filed this writ petition praying to issue a writ of quo warranto order or direction in the nature thereof requiring respondent no. 6 Shri Prakash Sinha to show under what authority he is occupying the office of principal of the College where petitioner is lecturer. It has also been prayed that respondent no. 6 be restrained from functioning as Principal of the College and the office of principal be declared as vacant. It has been further prayed that respondents 1 to 5 may be directed not to allow respondent no. 6 to hold office of principal and they may further be directed to declare the post of head of the institution as vacant and to advertise the same for appointment.

(2.) CASE of petitioner is that Shri Pratap Narayan Sinha (father of respondent no. 6) Sri Prakash Sinha, was principal of the College and he was 260 B. B. Singh v. State (R.R.K.. Trivedi, J.) [ 1991 due to retire on 30-6-1976. He proceeded on leave preparatory to his retirement with effect from 9-12-1975. Same day respondent no. 6 was appointed in his place on ad hoc basis and same day the District Inspector of Schools approved his appointment. It has been stated that respondent no 6 was working as lecturer in Subhash Inter College, Bhatni, district Deoria. Teachers of the institution made a representation against appointment of respondent no. 6 claiming that in view of the provisions contained in U. P. Secondary Education (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 1975 the senior-most teacher of the institution should be appointed to officiate as principal till permanent appointment is made. On this representation, the Deputy Director of Education VII Region, Gorakhpur, respondent no. 3 by his order dated 2-2-1976 set aside appointment of respondent no. 6. A copy of the order dated 2-2-1976 has been filed as Annexure I to the counter affidavit of respondent no 6 A perusal of the order shows that Dy. Director of Education set aside appointment of respondent no. 6 on two grounds : - (i) that under the Removal of Difficulties Order, 1975, only senior-most teacher could be appointed principal on ad-hoc basis and his claim could be ignored only when there is reliable evidence to show that he is incapable of holding the post. (It is difficult to assume that no teacher in the college in lecturer grade or L. T. grade is capable of functioning as head of the institution). (ii) that the respondent no. 6 was related to the head of the institution being his son and could not be legally appointed.

(3.) THE interim order dated 10-2-1976 mentioned above was, however, modified on 7-7-1976 by this Court THE order has been filed as Annexure II to the writ petitien which is being reproduced below :-