1. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the learned counsel for the parties and as per the directions of the Hon'ble Apex Court. Heard Mr. A. Z. Jibhkate, Advocate for petitioner, Mr. B. H. Shambharkar, Advocate for respondent nos.1 and 2, Mr. A. D. Sonak, A.G.P. for non applicant no. 3, Mr. A. D. Mohgaonkar, Advocate for respondent no.5 and Mr. V. N. Patre, Advocate for respondent no.6. Presence of the respondent no.4 is not necessary for deciding this writ petition since the respondent no.4 is Presiding Officer, School Tribunal, Nagpur.

2. The petitioner received a show cause notice dated 24.03.2003 from the respondent no.2Head Mistress, Swami Vivekanand High School, Waddhamana, Tq. Hingna, Dist. Nagpur. Certain acts of misconduct were alleged against the petitioner in the said show cause notice and explanation was sought from the petitioner. On receipt of it, the petitioner denied the allegations and furnished his explanation on 28.03.2003 to the show cause notice.

3. The respondent no.1 which runs the school, convened a meeting dated 04.04.2003 of its managing committee and in that it was decided, after considering the reply submitted by the petitioner, to hold and conduct an inquiry in respect of the acts of misconduct alleged against him. In the said meeting, it was decided to appoint one Mr. N. N. Jaipurkar as Convenor of the inquiry committee and also Eknath Tukaramji Pise who was, at the relevant time, President of the respondent no.1-Trust as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Committee.

4. By registered post, chargesheet along with statement of accusations were served upon the petitioner. In all 17 charges were levelled against the petitioner. Suffice it to state, from perusal of the statement of accusations, the charges were quite serious in nature. The petitioner submitted his reply to the chargesheet by addressing the same to the Chief Executive Officer.

5. It is also not in dispute that the Three Member Committee was constituted to hold and conduct the departmental inquiry against the petitioner for the charges levelled against him. The committee consisted of (i) Mr. N. N. Jaipurkar, as the Convenor and nominee of the management; (ii) Mr. Kharpate, as the State Awardee Teacher, nominated by the Chief Executive Officer and; (iii) Mr. Keshav Khushalji Dahake, a nominee of the petitioner. Various meetings were held by the Committee. Thereafter, two separate inquiry reports were submitted by the inquiry committee. The report of convenor Mr. Jaipurkar and the State Awardee Teacher Mr. Kharpate recorded a finding of guilt in their report dated 20.03.2006 against the petitioner by holding that the Management had proved all 17 charges whereas the report submitted by the nominee of the petitioner Mr. Dahake exonerated the petitioner from all the 17 charges.

6. The Management in its wisdom thought it fit to accept the inquiry report holding the petitioner as guilty and consequently on 01.02.2010, an order of termination was issued under the signature of the President of the respondent no.1trust thereby it was informed to the petitioner that the services of the petitioner as Assistant teacher in Swami Vivekanand High School are terminated w.e.f. 01.02.2010 itself and he was also relieved from his duties.

7. Feeling aggrieved by the said order of termination, a statutory appeal as contemplated under Section 9 of the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Regulation Act, 1977 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act” for the sake of brevity) was filed before the respondent no.4Presiding Officer of the School Tribunal, Nagpur. The said appeal was registered as Appeal No. STN 10/2010. The parties in this writ petition, except the respondent no.4, were the parties before the School Tribunal in the appeal. The parties to the appeal advanced their oral submissions. In addition to the oral submissions, the petitioner also filed his written submission. The learned Presiding Officer