Court No. - 3

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 22690 of 2022

Petitioner :- Smt. Nidhi Tripathi

Respondent :- State Of U P And 5 Others

Counsel for Petitioner :- Hritudhwaj Pratap Sahi,Narendra Kumar,Sankalp Narain

Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.

Hon'ble Surya Prakash Kesarwani,J.

Hon'ble Anish Kumar Gupta,J.

Heard Sri H.P. Sahi, learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing

counsel for the State - respondents.

This writ petition has been filed praying to quash the order dated 15.03.2022,

passed by the District Magistrate, Kaushambi, directing the respondent no.2 not

to take any work from the petitioner in view of serious allegations against her.

The petitioner has also prayed to quash the final order dated 07.07.2022 passed

by the State Government, whereby the petitioner has been removed from

membership of the Bal Kalyan Samiti, Kaushambi :

In paragraph 23, 24 and 25 of the writ petition the petitioner has stated as under :

"23. That first and foremost it is submitted that at no point of time before passing

of the impugned orders dated 15.3.2022, 11.5.2022 and 7.7.2022, the petitioner

was ever heard by the respondent - authorities. There is a clear cut violation of

principles of natural justice in as much as before passing of the impugned order

of termination no notice or any opportunity of hearing was afforded to the

petitioner.

24. That the inquiry report of 7.3.2022 was also never served upon the petitioner

so as to substantiate her case before all the three authorities i.e. District

Magistrate, the respondent no.2 as well as respondent no.1, which clearly

demonstrate that the cardinal principles of administrative law have been given a

go by the respondent - authorities.

25. That bare perusal of the order of the District Magistrate as well as that of the

State Government it would be amply clear that no notice of any kind was issued

to the petitioner before terminating her services, which again vitiates and

negates the validity of the impugned orders."

The aforesaid paragraph of the writ petition have been replied by the State

respondents in paragraphs 16, 17 and 18 of the counter affidavit, which are

reproduced below :

"16. That the contents of Paragraph No. 23 the writ petition are not admitted as

stated hence denied. In reply it is submitted here that in the magisterial enquiry

report dated 07.03.2022 of Deputy Collector, Kaushambi, it is mentioned that

with regard to magisterial enquiry of the incident dated 03.02.2022 wherein two

victims fled away from One Stop Centre by breaking the window, on 08.02.2022 a

press release was issued in which it is mentioned that "any concerned

person/party may approach the office of Deputy Collector, Kaushambi may

appear up till 11.02.2022 for any enquiry/statement or for examination of

documentary evidence with regard to above noted incident. Further, it is

submitted here that in pursuance thereof, the petitioner appeared before Deputy

Collector, Kaushambi and had got recorded her statement.

17. That the contents of Paragraph No. 24 of the writ petition need no

comments.

18. That the contents of Paragraph No. 25 & 26 the writ petition are not admitted

as stated hence denied. Suitable reply had already been given in the preceding

paragraphs of this counter affidavit."

Submission of learned counsel for the petitioner is that impugned order dated

07.07.2022 has been passed without affording any opportunity of hearing. He,

therefore submits that the impugned order has been passed in breach of principle

of natural justice.

Learned standing counsel does not dispute the aforesaid position and draws our

attention to the aforequoted paragraphs 16, 17 and 18 of the counter affidavit.

Thus, it is undisputed that the impugned order dated 07.07.2022, to the extent it

relates to removing the petitioner from membership of Bal Kalyan Samiti,

Kaushambi, has been passed by the State Govern