AKSHAY KUMAR NAYAK Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed the present writ petition seeking the following relief:

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner was appointed as a Classical Teacher on 18/11/1976 in Government High School, Dasamantapur, Koraput and after he joined as such on the said date he was transferred to different Government High Schools. While he was working in the Government High School Patraput in the district of Koraput, he took leave from 16/3/2002 for a period of 10 days by submitting necessary application before the Headmaster of that School and subsequently extended such leave by one month. In the meantime, the summer vacation holidays intervened, but thereafter when the petitioner wanted to resume his duties he was not allowed to do so on the ground that he was transferred to Government High School, Hatabarandi in the district of Nabarangpur, which is at a distance of 200 kms away from Patraput. The petitioner was not formally relieved but the substituted teacher joined in his place in the month of June, 2002. He applied for advance pay and GPF and as also submitted leave application in order to enable him to join in his new place of posting. But, the petitioner was neither relieved from Patraput nor was allowed to join in his new place of posting. While he was on leave as aforesaid, he was again transferred to Government High School, Dolapur, but the said order was not communicated to him. While the matter stood thus, he received a show cause notice dtd. 12/8/2005 alleging that despite order of the authority he had not joined in his duties by remaining unauthorizedly absent since 23/1/2003 which is a misconduct and secondly, he had not handed over the charges of library books of Government High School, Patraput kept in a locked wooden almirah, the keys of which are with him. The petitioner was charged with misconduct, loss of Government property, disobedience of order of authority and dereliction in performing the Government duties and was called upon to explain in writing within 30 days. The said show cause notice is annexed as Annexure-1 to the writ application. In response, the petitioner submitted a detailed explanation on 24/9/2005, annexed as Annexure-2 explaining each of the charges. However, nothing was communicated to him nor any enquiry was conducted. He submitted a representation on 11/3/2006 to the Inspector of Schools, Jeypore Circle and again on 15/11/2006. He also submitted a representation to the Director, Secondary Education, Odisha on 17/11/2007 receiving which, the Inspector of Schools, Jeypore Circle was called upon to submit a detailed report and to furnish a specific view for taking further action in the matter. However, without considering the case of the petitioner, the Inspector of Schools, Jeypore Circle vide order dtd. 7/6/2008 removed the petitioner from service in terms of Rule 72(1) and (2) of the Odisha Service Code.

(3.) The petitioner preferred an appeal before the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, School and Mass Education Department on 5/8/2008. During pendency of the appeal the petitioner approached the Odisha Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 2173(C) of 2014, which was disposed of vide order dtd. 13/4/2017 directing the opposite party no.1 to consider and dispose of the appeal of the petitioner within a period of three months. Despite such directions, the opposite party no.1 delegated the power to Director of Secondary Education Odisha to take a decision, who, vide order dtd. 23/3/2018 rejected the appeal on the ground that the petitioner is deemed to have resigned from his service as he remained unauthorizedly absent. The said order has been enclosed as Annexure-11 to the writ application. It is the further case of the petitioner that the action of the authorities in removing him from service is contrary to the statutory provisions, i.e., Rule 72(2) of the Odisha Service Code, which mandates that an enquiry as per OCS (CCA) Rules, 1962 should be conducted before taking any action.