The central legal point established is that the management cannot proceed against a retired employee in a departmental inquiry and inflict punishment after retirement, as it is not permitted under the Act and Rules.

(R.M. Borde, J. )

1. Heard.

2. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, petition is taken up for final disposal at admission stage.

3. Petitioner, who was serving as Assistant Teacher with respondent no. 5 – management, is assailing decision by the management to hold an enquiry against him and consequential order of termination which came to be issued on 28.09.2011 during the pendency of petition. Petitioner is also seeking direction to respondent nos. 4 and 5 to prepare and finalise pension papers and submit the same to the office of respondent nos. 2 and 3 so as to facilitate petitioner to avail of pensionary benefits. Petitioner also seeks directions against respondent nos. 2 and 3 to sanction pension and other pensionary benefits on receipt of pension papers from respondent nos. 4 and 5. It is not controverted that petitioner was serving as Assistant Teacher in the school operated by respondent no. 5 and was permitted to retire on attaining age of superannuation on 30.06.2010. As per the contentions of petitioner, though respondent – management contends that petitioner has been placed under suspension, the order of suspension has not been served upon him. It is however not disputed that statement of charges was not served on petitioner prior to the date of superannuation and those were served only on 08.10.2010. Respondent – management proceeded to appoint enquiry committee and on receipt of report inflicted punishment of termination of services against petitioner by order dated 28.09.2011, long after retirement of petitioner on attaining age of superannuation. It cannot be controverted that enquiry was initiated and statement of charge was served on 08.10.2010 only after retirement of petitioner on attaining age of superannuation. According to petitioner, since respondent no. 5 proceeded to initiate departmental enquiry against him and ultimately inflicted punishment of termination of services only after his retirement, the whole proceeding of enquiry and consequential order of termination is vitiated since such action does not have sanction of law.

4. The term employee has been defined in section 2(7) of the MEPS Act which reads thus:

(7) “employee” means any member of the teaching and non-teaching staff of a recognised school [ and includes Assistant Teacher (Probationary)];

The term ‘Teacher’ is defined in section 2(26) of the Act which reads thus:

(26) “teacher” means a member of the teaching staff, and includes the Head of a school;

Categories of employees are provided for in Rule 10 of the Rules of 1981 which read thus:

10. Categories of Employees : (1) Employees shall be permanent or non-permanent employees may be either temporary or on probation.

(2) A temporary employee is one who is appointed to a temporary vacancy for a fixed period.

Section 4(6) of the Act provides that no employee of a private school shall be suspended, dismissed or removed or his services shall not be otherwise terminated or he shall not be reduced in rank by the Management, except in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the rules made in that behalf. The procedure for inflicting major penalties is provided under Rule 33 of the MEPS Rules which provides thus :

33. Procedure for inflicting major penalties : (1) If an employee is alleged to be guilty of [any of the grounds specified in sub-rule (5) of rule 28] and if there is reason to believe that in the event of the guilt being proved against him, he is likely to be reduced in rank or removed from service, the Management shall first decide whether to hold an inquiry and also to place the employee under suspension and if it decides to suspend the employee, it shall authorise the Chief Executive Officer to do so after obtaining the permission of the Education Officer or, in the case of the Junior College of Education and Technical High Schools, of the Deputy Director. Suspension shall not be ordered unless there is a prima facie case for his remo