SUBODH SHIKSHA SAMITI Vs. SHRI GOPI CHAND TETARWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Under challenge is the judgment dated 25-5-2005 passed by the Rajasthan Non Government Educational Institution Tribunal, Jaipur (hereinafter 'the Tribunal') whereby it quashed and set aside the order dated 8-7-2002 passed by the petitioner Subodh Shiksha Samiti (hereinafter 'the Samiti') dismissing the respondent No.1 Gopi Chand Tetarwal (hereinafter 'the respondent') from the post of PTI Grade-II with the S. S. Jain Subodh Senior Secondary School Jaipur (hereinafter 'the School').

(2.) The facts of the case are that the respondent was appointed in the first instance as a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) Grade-III on 30-8-1980 and thereafter promoted on the post of PTI Grade-II. He came to be served with a charge sheet on 4-7-1995 detailing 11 charges. Broadly stated various misconducts alleged included misbehaviour with the Principal of the School, insubordination and exhorting the students of the School to indulge in vandalism against the school's property for reason of which a substantial financial loss was occasioned. The respondent was also alleged to have engaged in instigation of students of the school to rowdy and violent behaviour and of himself participating in the protest of non teaching staff of the school. He was stated to have unjustifiably refused to give proper accounts of the sport equipment in his custody which went missing as allegedly evident from the register in regard thereto and the physical verification of the equipment-all indicative of serious irregularities and misconduct. The respondent denied all charges and set up his defence, in the domestic enquiry. However the said defence was found to be unsatisfactory by the majority of the three member inquiry committee with one member (Government nominee) dissenting, following which the impugned order of dismissal of the respondent was passed on 8-7-2002.

(3.) The respondent challenged the dismissal order dated 8-7-2002 before the Tribunal inter alia on the ground that the said order was passed in contravention of the proviso to Section 18 of the Rajasthan Non Government Educational Institutions Act, 1989 (hereinafter 'the Act of 1989') according to which no final order of dismissal/ removal or reduction in rank of an employee could be passed even subsequent to a domestic enquiry prior to the approval of the Director of Education or an officer authorised by him. It was further submitted that the order of dismissal dated 8-7-2002 was passed by the Secretary of the Samiti, acting without jurisdiction whereas according to the provisions of the Act of 1989 and the Rajasthan Non Government Educational Institutions Rules, 1993 (hereinafter 'the Rules of 1993') the Secretary of the Samiti had no power to pass any order of termination or dismissal and instead the Management Committee of the School alone had the power to terminate/ dismiss/ reduce in rank an employee of the school. On the merits of the matter it was submitted that in any event the conclusions of the domestic enquiry holding the respondent to be guilty of misconduct were perverse as evident from the fact that the independent person on the Committee i.e. Sita Ram Garg, the nominee of the State Government found most of the charges laid against the respondent not to be proved and those proved not of serious nature, grave enough to warrant punishment of dismissal. It was submitted that from evidence collected during the domestic enqiry neither of the charges were proved.