JUDGMENT

1. The petitioner, who, at the relevant point of time, was the Mukhiya of Gram Panchayat Raj East Soren, under the Makhdumpur Block, in the district of Jehanabad, has filed the present writ application, for quashing order, dated 14.12.2020, passed by respondent no. 2-the Additional Chief Secretary -cum-Principal Secretary, Panchayati Raj Department, Government of Bihar, Patna, whereby the petitioner has been removed from the post of the Mukhiya, Gram Panchayat Raj East Soren, in exercise of power conferred upon the State Government, under Section 18 (5) of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 (herein after referred to as the 2006 Act') with further direction to the District Magistrate, Jehanabad, to take steps for recovery of the alleged misappropriated amount from the petitioner as well as the Panchayat Secretary, under the Bihar and Orissa Public Demand Recovery Act. The further prayer of the petitioner is for a direction to the respondent authorities to reinstate her on the post of Mukhiya of the Gram Panchayat Raj East Soren.

2. The brief fact, involved in the present writ application, is that the District Magistrate, Jehanabad, vide letter no. 1266, dated 07.12.2018, recommended initiation of proceeding under Section 18 (5) of the 2006 Act against the petitioner to the Department of Panchayati Raj, on the basis of the allegation that the petitioner, in the capacity of Mukhiya, has withdrawn a sum of Rs. 54,60,000/- from the account of the Gram Panchayat in illegal manner for execution of the schemes under the Mukhyamantri Sat Nischaya Yojana in violation of the Government instruction/ circulars, issued vide Memo Nos. 5751 and 5752, dated 30.06.2017. The charges, along with supporting evidence, were served upon the petitioner, vide letter no. 131, dated 04.01.2019, requiring the petitioner to submit her defence upon the charges levelled against her.

3. In reply to the said show cause, dated 15.01.2019, the petitioner stated that the wards were selected for the execution of the scheme by the Aam Sabha of the Gram Panchayat and the same was also approved in the meeting of the Executive Committee and accordingly, the concerned Junior Engineer was directed to prepare the estimate of the selected schemes and place the same before the petitioner for its approval. The Junior Engineer, thereafter, prepared the estimate of the scheme and placed it before the petitioner for technical approval. After the technical approval given by the petitioner, the concerned records were sent to the Block Development officer, Makhdumpur, for administrative approval and the Block Development officer, Makhdumpur, granted administrative approval of the schemes on 21.05.2017 and it was communicated to the petitioner, vide letter no. 110, dated 21.05.2017 (Annexure-1 series).

4. It has further been stated by the petitioner that in view of Government instructions, the Executive Agent of all the schemes was the Panchayat Secretary and, accordingly, the Panchayat Secretary moved a proposal with agreement paper before the petitioner and the petitioner issued the work order after accepting the agreement on 01.06.2017, for which the file was placed before the petitioner with administrative approval of the Block Development officer, Makhdumpur, and for the purpose of the execution of the work, advance amount was sanctioned by the petitioner in favour of the Panchayat Secretary, and after receipt of the advance amount, the Panchayat Secretary proceeded with the execution of the work and completed the work of Scheme Nos. 1 to 4 of 2017-18 and the final measurement thereof was already taken by the Junior Engineer on 20.05.2018 and the same was counter signed by the Assistant Engineer also on 16.08.2018.

5. The further defence of the petitioner was that insofar as the work of Scheme Nos. 5 to 8 are concerned, though the materials were brought to the site for construction from the advance amount received by the Panchayat Secretary and the same were about to be st