DHUBRI LAW COLLEGE Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. MK Choudhury, learned senior counsel for the petitioners, Mr. S. Bhuyan, learned counsel for the respondents No. 1 and 2 being the authorities in the Higher Education Department of the Government of Assam and Mr. UK Nair, learned senior counsel for the respondent No. 3 Sri Abdul Kuddus. Considering the nature of the grievance raised, we do not find the necessity of the respondents No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 to be the respondents in this writ petition. Accordingly, the said respondents stand deleted although Mr. P.J. Phukan, learned counsel appears for the respondents in the Gauhati University and Mr. D. Das, learned counsel for the respondent No. 7 being the authorities under the UGC are present, inasmuch as, the said respondents were arrayed as respondents in this writ petition.

(2.) Without going into the details of the facts leading to this writ petition, we take note of that the respondent No. 3 Sri Abdul Kuddus had filed an application before the learned Educational Tribunal, Dhubri, which was numbered as 89/2018 inter-alia claiming for a direction to the petitioner authorities under the Dhubri Law College for payment of subsistence allowances as well as the arrear subsistence allowances w.e.f. 14/6/2015. According to the respondent No. 3, he was suspended on 14/6/2015 about three years back on a complaint, which was later withdrawn by the complainant on 9/4/2015 and since then the authorities have not paid any subsistence allowances nor allowed the petitioner to cross examine the witnesses. The petitioner referred to a pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Ajay Kumar Choudhary vs. Union of India, reported in (2015) 7 SCC 291 to take a stand that in view of such pronouncement, the suspension should not be extended beyond three months. The petitioner also makes an averment that the Gauhati High Court by an order of 21/4/2016, which is referred as Annexure-21 directed the authorities to pay subsistence allowance and therefore, the petitioner had filed the application seeking for payment of subsistence allowance.

(3.) Against the said application, the authorities of Dhubri Law College had filed their written objection on 25/7/2018. The petition No. 89/2018 came up for its consideration before the learned Educational Tribunal, Dhubri and was given a final consideration by the order dtd. 27/6/2018, by which the authorities of the Dhubri Law College was directed to pay subsistence allowance @ 50% of the basic pay to the respondent No. 3 with effect from the date of his suspension.