ANANGA KUMAR MOHAPATRA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this writ application challenges the order dated 20.02.2009 passed by the Orissa Administrative Tribunal, Bhubaneswar in O.A. No. 115 of 2009 under Annexure-14 in which the Tribunal rejected the prayer of the petitioner to interfere with the punishments awarded in a disciplinary proceeding under Annexure-12, being minor in nature.

(2.) Annexure-12, the order dated 1.11.2008 passed by the State Government reveals that the petitioner has been awarded with the following punishments :

(3.) The facts of the case as delineated in the writ application tend to reveal that the petitioner while working as a Reader in Commerce in B.J.B. Autonomous College became the Head of the Department (H.O.D.) of Commerce and during such tenure of the petitioner as H.O.D., on 18.11.2005 one Reecha Mishra, a student of +3 Commerce of the said college committed suicide. In her suicidal note, she had put blame on two lecturers of the college, namely, Dr. Durga Prasanna Patnaik, Reader in Commerce, and Dr. Sahadev Swain Lecturer in Commerce, accusing them of indulging in private tuitions and harassing the students, who did not take their coaching. Basing on such allegation, the State Government directed the Director, Higher Education to inquire into the allegation made in the suicidal note. Accordingly, the Director of Higher Education conducted the inquiry and submitted his report to the State Government vide Annexure-3. Pursuant to such inquiry report, the State Government by order dated 4.1.2006 (Annexure-4) initiated a common disciplinary proceeding against the petitioner and the two other lecturers, namely Dr. Durga Prasanna Patnaik, Reader in Commerce, and Dr. Sahadev Swain, Lecturer in Commerce. Charge Nos. 1 and 3 which relate to the petitioner are as follows :