HC sets aside suspension of Sanskrit lecturer

A division bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside the suspension of a lecturer on the charge that he had contracted a second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage.

A bench comprising justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Qamar Hasan Rizvi, while upholding a single judge order, noted that once the jurisdiction was invoked to award ''minor'' punishment, it was impermissible to place the employee under suspension, and the requirements of enquiry and opportunity of hearing were not met.

A minor punishment could have been imposed upon the employee only if the employer was satisfied with the existence of charges levelled against the employee concerned, it observed.

The bench dismissed a special appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh state challenging the order of a single judge who had set aside the suspension of Bhaskar Prasad Dwivedi, lecturer of Sanskrit at the government degree college, Chunar.

The bench in its decision dated March 11 said, ''For exercising such power like minor penalty, the state government will have to inform the delinquent employee on the substance of imputations against him and call upon him to submit an explanation within a reasonable time.'' ''Once the jurisdiction was invoked to award minor punishment, it was impermissible to place the employee under suspension in as much as suspension would be permissible only where minor punishment can be awarded in view of Rule 4 of the Government employees discipline and appeal Rules, 1999, which provides enquiry and opportunity of hearing before taking any action against the employee''.

Both requirements were not met in the present case, it said.

Earlier, the single judge had set aside the order passed by the state government on July 27, 2023.

The single judge had taken note of the fact that there was no enquiry report in existence based on which the employer decided to impose minor punishment.

According to the single bench, the minor punishment under Rule 10 of the Rules could have been imposed upon the employee only if the employee was satisfied about the existence of charges levelled against the employee concerned.

According to the rules, the suspension should not be resorted to unless the allegations against the government servant are so serious that in the event of it being established may ordinarily warrant a major penalty.

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