- (1.) THE Judgment of the Court was as follows: THE legality and/or validity of the decision of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education which was taken by the committee constituted under section 24 of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Act, 1963 in its meeting held on 14th July, 2009 on the issue regarding grant of approval to initiate disciplinary proceeding (2nd stage) against the charged employee namely the respondent No.3 herein, is under challenge in this writ petition at the instance of the school authority. THE said decision of the Board was communicated to the Secretary of the Managing Committee of Krishnapur Jadhunath Madhab Chandra High School by the Deputy Secretary Administration of the Board by his letter under Memo No. 24/124/C dated 26th August, 2009, being annexure P-6 to this writ petition at page 73.
(2.) LET me now consider as to how far the Board was justified in taking the aforesaid decision in the facts of the instant case. Earlier a disciplinary proceeding was initiated by the Managing Committee of the said school against the said charged employee for various charges mentioned in the show cause notice. The said disciplinary proceeding was ultimately culminated with the order of dismissal of the said charged employee and the resolution of the Managing Committee for dismissing the said charged employee was approved by the committee constituted under section 24 of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Act, 1963. However, the approval of the said resolution of the Managing Committee of the said School, granted by the said section 24 committee was not maintained in appeal before the appeal committee of the Board which set aside the entire disciplinary proceeding against the charged employee on 07- 06-2008, as according to the said appeal committee the said proceeding was not conducted in accordance with law and the charged employee was not given reasonable opportunity of hearing prior to awarding of punishment. While setting aside the said proceeding, the appeal committee granted liberty to the school authority to proceed afresh against the said employee by giving him all opportunities and by following all the principles of natural justice with a rider that if the school decides to continue with the proceeding, the school will have to allow the candidate either to join the sohool or to give him full salary in case the school wants to keep him away. Pursuant to the liberty as granted above by the appeal committee, the school authority proposed to hold an enquiry against the said employee afresh and accordingly informed the said employee about the enquiry which was proposed to be held against him by the school authority, by its letter dated 11th November, 2008 being annexure P-3 to this writ petition at page 30. The articles of charges on which such enquiry was proposed, were also mentioned in the said letter and the said employee was called upon to submit his reply to those articles of charges within 15 days from the date of receipt of the said letter.
(3.) THE said employee submitted his reply to the said article of charges to the Secretary of the Managing Committee of the said school on 28th November, 2008. An enquiry officer was appointed to enquire into the charges so framed against him. THE said enquiry officer, after holding an enquiry with the participation of the presenting officer of the school as well as the charged employee, submitted his report before the Managing Committee of the said school on 30th March, 2009. THEreafter, a copy of the said report along with the relevant papers relating to proceeding concerning the said employee was forwarded to the said charged employee by the school authority along with its letter dated 11th April, 2009 appearing at page 57 of the writ petition. By the said letter, the charged employee was called upon to submit his comments on the said report in writing within 15 days from the date of receipt of the said report. THE charged employee submitted his comments on the said report to the Secretary of the said school on 27th April, 2009. THE comments of the said charged employee is a part of the writ petition which is appearing at page 28 therein. Subsequently, the Managing Committee of the said school, after considering the entire materials on record relating to the said enquiry proceeding, adopted a resolution in its meeting held on May, 2009 resolving a proposal to initiate a second stage of disciplinary proceeding against the said employee and accordingly a resolution was adopted for seeking approval of the Board for initiation of the second stage of disciplinary proceeding by the committee against the charged employee.;