IMPORTANT POINT
Permanent debarment requires a conviction; without it, debarment cannot exceed specified limits under applicable financial rules.

JUDGMENT :

(Ritu Bahri, CJ.) :

Petitioner has approached this Court seeking a writ to quash the debarment order dated 23.09.2022, passed by respondent no.2, pursuant to criminal proceedings initiated against the petitioner-company by Special Task Force (for short “STF”), pertaining to alleged involvement of the petitioner-company in leakage of question papers of the State Selection Commission Examination held on 04.12.2022/ 05.12.2022 and Secretariat Guard Examination held on 26.09.2021.

2. Petitioner has placed on record the Certificate of Incorporation dated 30.09.2010 (Annexure-1) to show that the petitioner is a Private Limited Company incorporated under the erstwhile Companies Act, 1956 with Certificate of Incorporation dated 30.09.2010. The petitioner has its registered office at Jankipuram, Lucknow, U.P. The main objects of the petitioner is to provide manpower, placement, recruiting, selecting, intervening, training and employing workers and executives for various Government, Public & Private Sector Undertakings.

3. Pursuant to the MoU (translated copy, Annexure-2), petitioner was awarded the contract by respondent no.2 to execute the works of “Pre and Post Examination Works relating to the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission Examination”. As per Clause 6 of the MoU, the printing work for the Commission was to be done in the present and in front of the Commission’s representative/ officers only after the sample and draft of the OMR sheet to be printed is approved.

4. Criminal proceedings were instituted qua in FIR No.0289 dated 22.07.2022 against unknown persons (initially lodged u/s 420 IPC at P.S. Raipur, Dehradun) by respondent no.2; and in the Final Report, namely Charge-sheet No.1 dated 19.09.2022, 18 persons have been charged u/s 420, 467, 471, 34 & 120-B IPC and Section 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 9/ 10 of the U.P. Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998. Thereafter, another FIR No.0351 dated 25.08.2022, under Sections 409, 420, 468, 471 & 120-B IPC and Section 9/10 of the U.P. Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998, was lodged. Subsequently, supplementary charge-sheet, namely charge-sheet No.2, dated 04.10.2022 and charge-sheet no.3, dated 19.10.2022, were filed.

5. As per the allegations set out in the First Information Reports, erring employees were immediately terminated by the petitioner-company. Copy of the termination letters of Jaijeet Das, Abhishek Verma, Vipin Bihari and Pradeep Kumar are Annexure-4 (collectively) to this writ petition.

6. Petitioner was issued a show-cause notice by respondent no.2 on 01.09.2022 (Annexure-5) to show-cause as to why the petitioner-company should not be blacklisted for the irregularities concerning the question paper leak by two of its employees, namely, Jaijeet Das and Abhishek Verma.

7. Another FIR No.0362, dated 04.09.2022 was lodged under Section 2/3 of the U.P. Gangster and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, wherein it has been alleged that leakage of examination papers has been clandestinely conducted with the active connivance of Shri Rajesh Kumar Chauhan (Director of petitioner-company), with other employees of petitioner-company and with the active participation of the State Government employees and outside agencies, by making a chain amongst themselves, which would attract the provisions of Sections 2 and 3 of the U.P. Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998, and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Copy of the FIR is Annexure-6.

8. Petitioner-company gave its reply dated 07.09.2022 (Annexure-7) to the show-cause notice (Annexure-5) taking the plea that the Directors/ Management had no knowledge of the alleged leak, nor did they have any involvement in the printing/ publication and issuance of the question papers and it was the officers of respondent no.2-Commission, in whose control and supervision, the question papers