The termination of services based on misconduct and forged certificates was justified under the Haryana Affiliated College (Security of Service) Rules, 2006, and the writ petitioner was given a fair opportunity to defend himself.

JUDGMENT :

G.S. SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. The present Letters Patent Appeal, filed by the Managing Committee of the appellant-College, is directed against the impugned order passed by the Learned Single Judge in CWP-18000-2020 on 12.01.2021 whereby the writ petition was allowed, setting aside the termination order dated 04.12.2009 (Annexure P-10) and the appellate order dated 12.10.2020 (Annexure P-18).

2. Vide the said order, Learned Single Judge came to the conclusion that without conducting a regular enquiry, the services of respondent No.1 could not have been terminated even in case of a probationer since the order contained reasons that it was on account of serious misconduct on the part of the employee. It was, accordingly, held that it was not done in accordance with the rules and a charge-sheet must be issued and the employee was required to file his reply thereto. Resultantly, liberty was given to pass a fresh order in accordance with law while placing reliance upon the judgments in Dipti Prakash Banerjee Vs. Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences 1999 (1) SCT 861, Union of India & others Vs. Mahaveer C.Singhvi 2010 (3) SCT 578 and Ashok Kumar Chopra Vs. Union of India & others 2019 (2) SCT 262.

3. Counsel for the writ petitioner/respondent No.1 herein, Mr.Namit Kumar has vehemently defended the said order and submitted that the Learned Single Judge was well within his jurisdiction to pass the impugned order. No prejudice was caused to the Managing Committee which had been given a opportunity to enquire into the matter and an opportunity had also been given to the concerned employee. An order of termination could have been passed only after following the said procedure since the termination order was passed on a finding that it was a case of misconduct.

4. Counsel for the appellants-Managing Committee, Mr.Sudhanshu Makkar, on the other hand, has taken us through the provisions of the Haryana Affiliated College (Security of Service) Act, 1979 and the Haryana Affiliated College (Security of Service) Rules, 2006, to submit that the statutory procedure was adhered to. It is thus submitted that the conduct of the employee itself was not satisfactory since the appointment was taken on the basis of false and forged documents and therefore dispensation of service was provided under Rule 8(2)(b)(i) after referring the matter to the concerned Committee, which also consisted of the nominee of the Government. It was submitted that if the said certificates were not taken into consideration, the writ petitioner would fail to make the merit and it was not the case of the writ petitioner that the benefit of certificates had not been granted to him. It was also submitted that a FIR had also been lodged on the same set of allegations and therefore, sufficient opportunity having been granted, the action was justified.

5. A perusal of the paper-book would go on to show that in pursuance to the advertisement dated 29.06.2017, the writ petitioner/ respondent No.1 applied for the post of Assistant Professor in the subject of Chemistry vide his application dated 12.07.2017. In the said application, it was specifically mentioned that he did not take part in any curricular activities and did not fill in any details of the said activities and neither any certificate of NCC participation was attached. In Clause 12 (2) where the NCC certificate was to be of 'B' or 'C' category, it was mentioned as 'Nil'. Similarly, in Clause 13, the claim for any benefit of sports was 'Nil' and neither any certificate was stated to have been attached. However, when interview was conducted on 25.10.2017, a perusal of the break-up which has now been placed on record as Annexure R-3/3 would go on to show that the writ petitioner was given the benefit of NCC certificate of Category B and was given the benefit of 1 mark for the said certificate. Similarly, for the sports certificate, he was given the benefit of 4 marks. Resultantly, his merit went to 33 marks.

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