Proper verification and due process are essential before taking action based on allegations of forged certificates.

JUDGMENT :

Reg. I.A. Nos. 1 of 2019, 2 of 2020 and 3 of 2021 and C.W.J.C. No. 13370 of 2019:

Heard the counsel for the parties.

2. The petitioners, who are Niyojit Teachers in the District of Saran, have sought quashing of Letter Nos. 316, 318 and 325, contained in Annexure-6 series to the writ petition, issued by the Police Inspector-Cum-Assistant Investigating Officer, Vigilance, Patna observing that their certificates have been found to be forged and fabricated in course of Vigilance enquiry as well as for a direction to the Bihar School Examination Board (in short the BSEB) to produce the tabulation register of TET Examination, 2011 with regard to them. There is a further prayer for a direction to resume payment of salary to the petitioners who have been regularly working on their posts.

3. During the pendency of this writ petition, the appointment of petitioner Nos. 21, 22 and 23 (Shiv Shankar Kumar, Ranjana Kumari and Anu Kumari) have been terminated.

4. It is the case of the petitioners that they had appeared in the Bihar Elementary Teacher Eligibility Test, 2011 (in short the BETET) and were declared passed. With the onset of the selection process of 2014 for appointment on the post of Niyojit Teachers in the schools of different Blocks of Saran District, the petitioners applied and were declared successful. After verification of their documents, they were made to join their respective posts and have been getting their salaries. However, all of a sudden, they came to learn from a newspaper report that an F.I.R. has been lodged on the ground that the certificates of the teachers have been found to be forged and fabricated. A communication was made by the Investigating Officer, Vigilance to the concerned authorities for stopping the salary of the petitioners.

5. In the case of one of the such teachers, namely, Chandani Kumari in C.W.J.C. No. 9786 of 2019, this Court took note of the fact that no proper verification was made for holding the certificates of the teachers to be forged and fabricated. For some anomalies observed by the Vigilance Department in the certificates of such teachers, a general presumption was drawn that their certificates are forged and fabricated. No time was given to the petitioners to explain the circumstance and their bona fides. Their salary was stopped even without initiating departmental proceeding against them. Such orders were passed on the ground of the pendency of the Vigilance case against most of the teachers appointed in the selection process of 2014.

6. During the course of investigation of the Vigilance case, on the basis of compliant made by some of the teachers, an enquiry was set-up wherein it was found that the Chief Investigator had bungled in the matter and had not verified anything but had only mechanically signed the documents and issued various communications to the authorities concerned for stopping the salary of the petitioners and others and also for initiating proceeding for their termination.

7. In the aforesaid case, this Court set-aside the termination of the petitioner and directed the Director, Primary Education, Department of Education, Govt. of Bihar, Patna to look into the matter and pass necessary order/decision with respect to reinstatement and resumption of the salary of the petitioner. Such decision was however made subject to the final outcome of the investigation of the case. This Court had also directed for conclusion of the investigation as expeditiously as possible.

8. Considering the aforesaid view taken by this Court in the case of Chandani Kumari (supra), in the present case also, the termination order of petitioner Nos. 21, 22 and 23 is set-aside.

9. The petitioners are directed to make a suitable representation before the Director, Primary Education, Department of Education, Govt. of Bihar, Patna along with a copy of this order within a period of four weeks, the concerned authority shall look into the same and shall pass necessary orders accordingly, reinstat