JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. Shekhar Singh, the learned Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. Sanjay Kumar Giri, the learned counsel for the respondents.

2. The petitioner has challenged the order of punishment dated 05.10.2019 issued by the Director of National Institute of Technology, Patna, removing him from services of the National Institute of Technology, Patna (in short the NIT) where he had been serving as Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department as also for quashing the memorandum of charges dated 21.09.2015 and all the consequent proceedings pursuant thereto.

3. While in job in the NIT, the petitioner had enrolled himself for Ph.D. in the Electrical Engineering Department at the NIT. He had appeared in the Mid-Semester Examination for such Ph.D. course in the month of March, 2014. The invigilator of the aforesaid exam pointed out a discrepancy in his answer book as on the answer book submitted by the petitioner, a different code was mentioned, which answer-book was not supplied to the candidates in the examination hall. A notice was thereafter given to the petitioner for having used unfair means during the examination.

4. To such notice, the petitioner replied on 29.