Basant Kumar Yadav vs State Of Chhattisgarh

The petitioner has filed present petition assailing the suspension order dated 11.05.2022 passed by the Collector Balrampur, District: Balrampur-Ramanujganj (C.G.) by which the petitioner who is working on the post of Head Master, Government High School, Jagima, Block: Shankargarh has been suspended by respondent No. 4.

Counsel for the petitioner would submit that the Pradhan Pardhyapak, i.e. Head Master of the Middle School has been classified as Gazetted Officer Class-II by the State Government vide order dated 11.06.2008 which has been subsequently withdrawn and the words that they will not discharge the work of dying and disbursement of authorities has been deleted on 10.03.2017 that means they will remain as Gazetted Class-II Officer and have all the power of dying and disbursing authorities.

The learned counsel for the petitioner would further submit that the Collector is not authorized to suspend the Class-II Officer in view of the provisions contained in Rule 9 (1) (a) of Chhattisgarh Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules 1966, as such the order passed by the authorities without jurisdiction. He would refer the judgment of the coordinate bench in the case of Kumar Paul versus State of Chhattisgarh and Others decided on 06.05.2022 in WP (S) No. 3263 of 2022, wherein the coordinate bench of this Court in Paragraph 3 and 4 has held as under:

“ 3. Admittedly, the petitioner in the instant case was working as an Incharge Principal of the Govt. High School, Indraprasth, Block Koilibeda. The substantive post that the petitioner holds is that of Lecturer (LB). The post of Lecturer (LB) is a class-II cadre post. Thus, the authority who has been empowered to place the person of class-II cadre under suspension is only upon the Disciplinary Authority or upon the Divisional Commissioner. In the instant case the order of suspension has been issued by the respondent No.3 the District Collector, who prima-facie does not have the power to place an officer of the class-II cadre under suspension. The issue involved in the present case already has come up before this Court for consideration and this Court has in as many as three writ petitions of identical issue allowed the writ petitions quashing the order of suspension, those are- WPS No. 3160/2006 (Anil Kumar Jain v. State of Chhattisgarh & others), WPS No. 6590/2014 (R.P. Parihar v. State of Chhattisgarh & others) and WPS No. 2062/2026 (Panchu Ram Thakur v. State of Chhattisgarh & others), decided on 09.10.2014, 27.03.2015 & 21.06.2021 respectively.

Given the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case and also the judicial pronouncements made in the recent past on the said set of facts, this Court is of the opinion that the impugned order so far as the competency of the respondent No.3 is concerned deserves to be interfered and the same is accordingly set-aside/quashed reserving the right of the State Government to take appropriate action in accordance with the provisions of law.

In view of the above factual matrix and considering the power and competency of the Collector to suspend the petitioner, it is quite vivid that the Collector is not the competent authority to suspend a Class-II Officer.

Accordingly, the suspension order dated 11.05.2022 (Annexure P/1) is hereby quashed. However, if the State Government so desires the competent authority may take subsequent action in accordance with law. The quashing of the suspension order does not debar the authorities to pass appropriate order.

With these observations, the petition is allowed.