Kamal Kumar Santra vs State Of West Bengal & Ors.

The petitioner is a para teacher at Panna Bharat Ratna Roy Vidyamandir. Pursuant to the order being no. 886SE(Pry)/PBRPSUS/ADMN/9/04-05

dated 16th November, 2010 and according to the recommendation of the District Level Committee under Memo no. 3320/SSM/TSUP/ 03/07 dated

March 1, 2011 (Annexure P-2) the writ petition was engaged in the post of upper primary para teacher of the said school on the terms and conditions

contained therein which was stated to be valid till the petitioner attained the age of 60 years.

It appears that the petitioner was unable to attend to his duties for a few months id est from August 20, 2013 to November 8, 2013. The petitioner

submits that this was because of his illness as also of his father’s illness. It is his case that the school did not allow him to rejoin his duties. He

made several representations to the respondent authorities culminating in an order dated November 20, 2015 passed by the District Project Officer,

Pashchim Medinipur, respondent no. 4. The operative part of the said order is reproduced hereinbelow:

“As per discussion in the hearing after considering everything, he is allowed to rejoin his duty with a warning and taking an undertaking from him

that he will not repeat that and his honorarium will be released from the date of his re-joining after submission of his joining report to the office of the

undersigned through proper channel and his long authorised leave over admissible leave will be considered as leave without pay. The CPC, Ghatal

West Circle, The President of MC & HM of Panna Bharat Ratna Roy Vidyamandir are requested to allow him to re-join in his duty as Para Teacher

in Panna Bharat Ratna Roy Vidyamandir and send his joining report through proper channel to the office of the undersigned within seven days after

receiving the order copy of hearing statement.â€​

Even though the respondent no. 4 was good enough to couch his order in the polite form of a request, undoubtedly it was an order which bound the

school and its Managing Committee and its Headmaster. The Headmaster, Managing Committee and the President of the Managing Committee have

been arrayed as respondent nos. 7, 8 and 6 respectively. The writ petitioner submits that despite such order being passed and despite his attempt to

rejoin in the school in terms of the order passed by the respondent no. 4, the said school authorities did not allow him to join without disclosing any

reason whatsoever.

Normally the writ Court is not required to act as an executing authority of the District Project Officer. However, this is a case where culpable inaction

and the refusal of the school authorities to obey a lawful order passed by the competent authority have resulted in deprivation of the writ petitioner of

the right to his livelihood without following procedure established by law and/ or due process. I say this because the writ petitioner has not received

salary since September 2013 and even after the order passed by the respondent no. 4 he has not been allowed to rejoin and thus he is without

livelihood.

The school authorities have not come forward to controvert this position. The Bank statement of the writ petitioner disclosed in the writ petition

supports such a submission made by the writ petitioner. In the face of such gross violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, I am inclined to

admit the petition. Unfortunately since the school authorities though arrayed have not appeared today, I cannot pass any order finally disposing of the

writ petition. However, in the above facts and circumstances I record the finding that the writ petitioner has made out a prima facie case and balance

of convenience is wholly in favour of the writ petitioner to get an interim order which I propose to pass.

Accordingly, I direct that the respondent no. 6, 7 and 8 and each of them and/or their men and agents, servants, employees, subordinates and staffs

and authorities and/or each of them shall allow the writ petitioner to rejoin his duties on and from the date they receive the communication of this order

and within a period of 24 hours from the date of communication of this order release to the petitioner his salary for the period from November 20,

2015 till date and shall continue to pay his salary to him month by month as and when it is due as an interim measure. This order is passed without

prejudice to the rights and contentions of the respective parties and shall be subject to the result of the writ petition and/or further order of this Court.

Parties are to act on the website copy of this order. Let the matter appear three weeks after Summer vacation.