JUDGMENT :

B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. Leave granted in both the Special Leave Petitions.

2. Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the “KDM Corporation”) and the State of Maharashtra, by way of the present appeals, challenge the correctness of the judgment dated 6th April 2021, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Writ Petition (ST.) No. 3599 of 2020, thereby holding that the KDM Corporation was not the competent authority to suspend respondent No.1-Sanjay Gajanan Gharat. By the impugned judgment, the High Court had also quashed the departmental inquiry initiated against the respondent No.1 and directed the KDM Corporation to reinstate him forthwith to the post of Additional Municipal Commissioner (hereinafter referred to as “AMC”) of the KDM Corporation.

3. The facts are not in dispute. The respondent No.1 was initially appointed as an Assistant Municipal Commissioner of the KDM Corporation in the year 1995. The said appointment was approved by the State Government on 1st February 1997 under Section 45 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 (hereinafter referred to as “the MMC Act”). The KDM Corporation thereafter re