DR. BHUPESH MALLA BUZARBARUAH Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. S. Sarma, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. A. Chamua, learned counsel for the Higher Education Department of the Govt. of Assam, Mr. A. Hasan, learned counsel for the Accountant General (A and E)

(2.) Issue notice, returnable in 4 (four) weeks. Extra copies be furnished within three days.

(3.) The petitioner who was an Associate Professor of J.B. Law College, Guwahati offered his candidature pursuant to the advertisement dated 22.09.2016 for the post of Principal of the BRM Govt. Law College. On being recommended by the APSC, he was appointed as the Principal of the college, and accordingly assumed the charge as the Principal of BRM Govt. Law College on 02.03.2017. While discharging his duty as the Principal of the college, the petitioner was issued a show cause notice dated 23.12.2019 under Rule 9 of the Assam Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1964 (in short Rule of 1964) read with Article 311 of the Constitution of India requiring him to show cause as to why any of the penalties prescribed in Rule 7 of the said Rules would not be inflicted on him. We take note of that Rule 9 is the provision under Rules of 1964 for initiating a disciplinary proceeding and Rule 7 provides for the penalties that may be imposed, which also includes the penalty of suspension. The show cause notice dated 23.12.2019 shows that there is a 'suspected misappropriation of Rs.74.04 lakhs' as per the report of the Accountant General dated 20.11.2019. Accordingly, the disciplinary proceeding has been initiated. The report of the Accountant General is also made a part of this writ petition and it is taken note of that the same was forwarded by the office of the Accountant General on 20.11.2019. 3. Be that as it may, the audit report of the Accountant General shows that a audit was conducted in respect of the records of the Principal of BRM Govt. Law College for the period 2013-14, 2017-18 which shows that an amount of Rs.1.73 crores was collected as fees from the students out of which 1.47 crores was collected as cash and Rs.0.26 crores collected as POS deposited by the candidates directly in the bank account of the college.