The main legal point established is the requirement to serve a memorandum of charges within three months of suspension as per the Assam Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964, and previous court rulings.

JUDGMENT :

Kalyan Rai Surana, J.

1. Heard Mr. U.K. Nair, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. D. Choudhury, learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms. M. Bhattacharjee, learned Addl. Senior Government Advocate appearing for all the State respondents.

2. The petitioner, who at the relevant time posted as the Superintendent of Central Jail, Tezpur was arrested on 16.07.2020 in connection with Tezpur P.S. Case No. 841/2020 under Section 354A/409 and 376(C) of the Indian Penal Code. He was placed under suspension vide impugned order dated 18.07.2020 issued by the Joint Secretary to the Government of Assam, Home and Political Department in exercise of power under Rule 6(2) of the Assam Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964. Amongst others, on the ground that no charge-sheet was submitted before the trial Court and no charge-sheet in respect of any disciplinary proceeding was served on the petitioner within three months of his suspension, and nor any review of the order of suspension was made within three months from the date of suspension despite submitting representations dated 12.11.2020 and 07.04.2021, by filing this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has assailed the order of suspension dated 18.07.2020, and his continued suspension. In this regard, reliance has been placed on the case of (i) Ajay Kumar Choudhary vs. Union of India and Another, (2015) 7 SCC 291 and (ii) Rakibuddin Ahmed vs. State of Assam and Others, 2019 (5) GLT 600 (DB).

3. It may be mentioned that although the Court had issued notice of motion returnable within three weeks by order dated 03.05.2021, the State respondents have not filed any affidavit-in-opposition. At the outset the learned Additional Senior Government Advocate has submitted that due to some medical issues, she would be going out of station today and a fervent prayer was made to adjourn the matter for at least two weeks to enable her to file an affidavit-in-opposition. The prayer for adjournment was refused and the matter was heard on merit. While refusing the prayer for adjournment, the Court was fully conscious of the intent and purport of the ratio laid down in the case of Ajay Kumar Choudhary (supra) and Rakibuddin Ahmed (supra). In this regard, it would be appropriate to quote the observation of the Supreme Court of India in Para-12 of the case of Ajay Kumar Choudhary (supra), which reads as follows:

“12....Indubitably the sophist will nimbly counter that our Constitution does not explicitly guarantee either the right to a speedy trial even to the incarcerated, or assume the presumption of innocence to the accused. But we must remember that both these factors are legal ground norms, are inextricable tenets of common law jurisprudence, antedating even the Magna Carta of 1215, which assures that we will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right. In similar vein the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.”

4. As pointed out by the learned senior counsel for the petitioner, it has been observed that in the connected contempt petition, numbered as Cont. Case (C) No. 307/2021, which is analogously listed with this writ petition, the respondent therein, who at the relevant time was holding the post of Principal Secretary to the Government of Assam, Home and Political Department had filed his affidavit-in-opposition on 29.11.2021 and in paragraph 4 thereof, it has been specifically stated as follows:

“...Following this, he was placed under suspension vide Government order No. HMB.93/2019/Part/4 dated 18.07.2020. Further the delinquent officer had submitted an application dated 12.11.2020 to vacate the suspension order and release the subsistence allowance.”

...A review Board was constituted in the Home Department, Government of Assam vide No. HMB.93/2019/Part/14 dated 04.02.2021 for