JUDGMENT

Ravindra V. Ghuge, J. - In all these 185 writ petitions, these petitioners are aggrieved by the identical orders passed by the Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad, Jalgaon by which the punishment of stoppage of one increment for one year with cumulative effect has been inflicted on these petitioners. All the orders are practically identical in nature. However, in 114 cases represented by Ms.Talekar, learned Advocate for the petitioners, the punishment, though is the same, is based on a conclusion by the C.E.O. that these petitioners have submitted false / bogus bills. All these petitioners were working as Head Masters in their respective schools. They are also aggrieved by the identical orders passed by the Appellate Authority rejecting their appeals.

2. I have considered the strenuous submissions of the learned Advocates for the respective sides for almost the entire day on 21/07/2018.

3. The submissions of Mr.Brahme, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of 56 petitioners, has been adopted by the learned Advocates for all other petitioners to the extent of the factual matrix in these matters. Their submissions are, therefore, summarized as under :

[a] A scheme was intr