DR. DIBYENDU MAZUMDER Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, claiming himself a widely acknowledged Dental Surgeon and the one who has been engaged by different Universities as Honorary Professor, is aggrieved of the order contained in Memo dated 01.09.2016 issued under the signature of the Registrar, Nilamber Pitamber University.

(2.) Briefly stated, the petitioner was appointed as Honorary Visiting Professor in the Vananchal Dental College and Hospital, on 12.02.2013 by the Governing Body of the College. He has been appointed as Honorary Visiting Professor for Vananchal Dental College by the Nilamber Pitamber University also, and this decision was communicated to him by letters dated 24.09.2013 and 27.04.2015. In the meantime, the University issued Notification dated 17.10.2013 for election under subsection (d) to section 3 of the Dentists Act, 1948. The petitioner was elected a member under section 3(d) representing Nilamber Pitamber University in Dental Council of India (hereinafter referred to as DCI) on 23.10.2013. On 22.06.2016, a show-cause notice was issued to the petitioner for termination of his appointment as Honorary Visiting Professor and for annulment/ withdrawal/ cancellation of his election as a member of the Dental Council of India, which was replied by the petitioner on 16.07.2016. The University vide its order dated 01.09.2016 terminated appointment of the petitioner as Honorary Visiting Professor in Vananchal Dental College, and cancelled his election as a member under section 3(d) of the Dentists Act, 1948 from the University to DCI. It is this order which has been impugned by the petitioner in the present proceeding, primarily raising a question of jurisdiction of the Vice-Chancellor, Nilamber Pitamber University to terminate his appointment in the College and his election as a member of DCI.

(3.) In its counter-affidavit, the respondent-University has taken a stand that appointment of the petitioner to a post which was not duly sanctioned by the State Government and which was more in the nature of a nomination rather, an appointment, was in the teeth of the statutory provisions under Jharkhand Universities Act, 2000, in particular, sections 57A and 58. Petitioner's election as member of DCI under section 3(d) has been challenged on the ground that there was no Dental Faculty in the University and, in fact, the Senate of Nilamber Pitamber University, which was carved out from Ranchi University on 17.01.2009, was never constituted and notified. The respondent-University has asserted that meeting of the Senate of the University, for this reason, has never been called. The University supports the impugned order dated 01.09.2016 by pleading that before a final decision was taken in the matter, the petitioner was afforded an opportunity to defend his appointment in the College and election from the University as member of DCI. Denouncing its letters and notifications, the University has taken a position that the whole exercise of appointment and election of the petitioner was on account of a mistake, inadvertently committed by the University.