The main legal point established in the judgment is that the power to initiate disciplinary proceedings rested with the Executive Council (EC) as the Competent Authority, and in the absence of delegation of power to the Vice Chancellor (VC), the charge sheets issued by the University were quashed.

ORDER :

Goutam Bhaduri, J.

1. All the above referred writ appeals heard analogously and decided together by this common order because common question of law has been raised and the grounds of challenge are overlapping with each other.

2. The present writ appeals are arising out of orders passed by the learned Single Judge in the respective writ petitions wherein the prayer to quash the disciplinary proceedings commenced against them on the basis of the authorities who are in hold of the proceedings do not have jurisdiction, were dismissed.

3. The facts of the case, in brief, are that :

i. appellant namely; Anil kumar Singh was appointed as Assistant Grade-I on 24.05.2007. He was placed under suspension on 06.08.2020 by the Registrar, Hidayatullah National Law University (henceforth ‘the University’). The said suspension order was revoked on 10.11.2020, as no charge sheet was issued thereafter. Again, he was placed under suspension on 11.11.2020 on the ground that the First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against him under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and subsequently, retired Additional Superintendent of Police was appointed as Investigating Officer. The same was subject of challenge in WPS No.2008 of 2022 wherein the learned Single Judge by order dated 28.03.2022 ordered that enquiry may go on, but no final order should be passed. Subsequent thereto, the appellant filed a representation as an employee to the Executive Council (henceforth ‘the EC’) along with whopping number of Annexures. Pursuant thereto, the University issued a show cause notice on the ground that the Annexures which were attached were sensitive & financial documents and Anil Kumar should not have in hold of those documents. In response to the said show cause notice, the appellant submitted his reply and contended that few of the documents were obtained under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and few of the documents were obtained from his Advocate. However, being not satisfied with such reply, a charge sheet was issued to the appellant on 02.05.2022.

ii. another appellant namely; Dinesh Kumar Lalwani was appointed as P.A. to Vice Chancellor (henceforth ‘the VC’) on 24.05.2007. He was placed under suspension on 06.08.2020 and as on date he is under suspension. According to him, no charge sheet was served for a considerable period of time. In the meanwhile, the appellant submitted a representation raising his grievances along with several Annexures. Subsequently, a show cause notice was issued to him on the ground that along with the representation certain sensitive & financial documents were filed without disclosing the source as to how he obtained those documents, to which he submitted his reply and denied the allegations levelled against him. Being not satisfied with such reply, he too was charge sheeted on 02.05.2022.

4. Shri Shashank Thakur, learned counsel appearing for the appellants would submit that :

neither the VC nor the Registrar was competent Authority to contemplate disciplinary proceedings as per the provisions of the Hidayatullah National University of Law Chhattisgarh Adhiniyam, 2003 (henceforth, ‘the Act, 2003’);

Section 10 defines the Authorities of the University wherein the VC or the Registrar do not find place as an Authority;

Section 12 defines the EC, which would be the highest body of the University; therefore, the EC would be responsible for administration, management and control of the University;

appointment of the appellants was in accordance with the provisions of the Statute 9(2) by the EC, which empowers to create positions in Administrative, Teaching, Research, etc., therefore, it was the EC, which was empowered to take any such disciplinary action against them;

as per Statute 13, the EC may by resolution, delegate to the VC or to a Committee, such of its powers as it may deem fit, which was not done in instant cases;

in the minutes of the EC dated 20.12.2020, 05.06.2021 & 13.07.2021, no delegation of pow