U P SINGH Vs. BOARD OF GOVERNORSMACTBHOPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall also dispose of Misc. Petition No. 794 of 1981.

(2.) The petitioners in these petitions were students of Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal. which is a Re-gional College of Engineering and Technology. The college is are autonomous body and is managed by a Board of Governors. On 11th Feb. 1981, at about 4.30 a. m., an incident happened in the college Hostel in which some students were assaulted by a group of students. Rods, cycle chains and swords were freely used in this incident. One student, namely, O. S. Ekta, suffered serious injuries. His right hand was practically severed and it had to be amputated. Another student M. U. Qureshi MPHC) Page 2 of 5 also suffered serious injuries. Two other students, Rajnish Bharil and M. V. Section Shastri. were also assaulted and suffered minor injuries. The Proctorial Committee, which is presided over by the prin-cipal of the College with his concurrence, passed an order on 11th Feb. itself expelling from the college and hostel four of the petitioners, U. S. Singh, Jawahar Singh, Ajaysingh Gaur and S. S. Niranjan. By another order passed on 14th Feb. 1981, five more students, including the four remaining petitioners, M. G. Shrimali D. P. Gupta, N. K. Rathore, D. Section Gill and Rajesh Sharma, were expelled from the college and hostel. These orders mention that action against the petitioners was taken in connection with their grave involvement in the incident of 11th Feb. 1981 which resulted in serious injuries to some students. These are the orders which the petitioners challenge in these petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution.

(3.) The first information report of the incident was lodged by Rajnish Bharil at 7 a. m. on nth Feb. 1981. A copy of the first information report was forwarded to the principal. Rajnish Bharil also gave a written statement in the form of a letter to the Principal on 11th Feb. 1981 in which the incident was described. M. V. S. Shastri also gave a similar letter on the same date to the Principal. All these three documents mention the names of the petitioners as forming the group who assaulted and caused injuries to Ekta, Qureshi, Bharil and Shastri. The proctorial Committee met at 11.30 a. m. on 11th Feb. 1981 and recommended the expulsion of U. P. Singh, Jawahar Singh, Ajaysingh Gaur and J. Section Niranjan and decided to continue further investigation in respect of others. As already stated, the Principal is the Chairman of the Committee. The order was 'approved by him on 11th Feb. itself and the aforesaid four students were expelled. The Committee again met on 13th Feb. 1981 at 2.30 p. m. The Committee suspended M. G. Shri-mali, D. P. Gupta, R. K. Rathore, D. Section Gill and Rajesh Sharma for their involvement in the incident. They were required to show cause why they should not be expelled. As they were not available in the college campus, the notice was pasted on the notice board. The Committee met again at 10 p. m. and resolved to expel the aforesaid five students also. Consequently, the second order of expulsion was passed with the approval of the Principal.