Allahabad High Court
Vishal Choudhary And 4 Otkhers vs State Of U.P Thru. Its Chief Secy. And 8 ... on 12 May, 2022
Author: Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya
Bench: Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH Court No. - 2 Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 243 of 2022 Petitioners :- Vishal Choudhary And 4 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P Thru. Its Chief Secy. And 8 Others Counsel for Petitioners :- Ashok Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya,J.
Hon'ble Subhash Vidyarthi,J.
Heard Shri Rishi Srivastava and Ms. Pushpanjali Singh, learned counsel for the petitioners and Shri Anand Kumar, learned Standing Counsel representing the State authorities.
By instituting these proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution of India purportedly in public interest, a Writ of Quo Warranto has been sought directing the respondent no.6 to establish as to under which lawful authority is he holding a public office of the post of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut. Apart from the prayer for issuing a Writ of Quo Warranto, several other prayers have also been made.
The prayer clause in the writ petition is extracted hereinbelow:-
"I. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Quo warranto commanding Respondent no.6 (Usurper) to prove by what authority he is occupying the Public post of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut and oust him form the said post.
II. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Certiorari calling for the records of the case and to quash the order dated 07-06-2019 passed by Respondent no.2 to post the usurper Respondent no.6 on the post of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut .
III. Issue an order declaring Respondent no.6 Shri Prabodh Kumar as a Usuper on the Public post of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut w.e.f. 07-06-2019.
IV. Issue an order taking cognizance of the False affidavit filed before this Hon'ble Court in Service Single 5259/2019 and initiated Criminal Contempt proceedings against Respondent no.6 Shri Prabodh Kumar under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
V. Issue an order or direction to initiate Criminal Proceedings under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code against Respondent no.6 Shri Prabodh Kumar for filing false affidavit before this Hon'ble court.
VI. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Certiorari summoning the Departmental Enquiry conducted against Respondent no.6 in pursuance to order dated 11-01-2019 and quash the same.
VII. Issue a writ order or direction in the nature of Mandamus commanding the Respondent no.1 to conduct a time bound Departmental enquiry de novo against Respondent no.6 Shri Prabodh Kumar as well as against Respondent no.7 Shri Shailendra Kumar.
VIII. Such any other order or direction as this Hon'ble Court deems fit under the circumstances of the case may also be passed in favour of the petitioner.
IX. Allow the petition of the petitioner with cost."
The first prayer as referred above is in relation to issuance of a Writ of Quo Warranto whereas by the second prayer, quashing of an order dated 07-06-2019 whereby the respondent no.6 has been posted on the post of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut, has been sought. Prayer no.3 relates to a declaratory relief in respect of respondent no.6, who is said to be an usurper of a public office. Prayers no.4 and 5 relate to some false affidavits allegedly filed before this Court by respondent no.6 in a Writ Petition, namely Writ Petition no.5259 (s/s) of 2019. Prayer no.6 again relates to quashing of the departmental inquiry conducted against respondent no.6 pursuant to the order dated 11-01-2019. By a prayer no.7 a direction in the nature of mandamus has been sought to be issued to the State Government to conduct de novo departmental proceeding against the respondent no.6 as well as respondent no.7.
So far as prayers no.2,6 and 7 are concerned, the same relate to service related matters of respondent no.6 and, as such, in view of the law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Dr. Duryodhan Sahu Vs. Jitendra Mishra, 1998 (7) SCC 273, as followed in subsequent judgments, in our considered opinion this public interest litigation would not maintainable.
As far as prayers no.4 and 5 are concerned, in case any allegedly false affidavit has been filed before this Court in a writ petition which was filed by respondent no.6, it is for the State Government who is the respondents in the said writ petition, to find out and if permissible, take any proceeding for allegedly filing a false affidavit. Such a prayer in this petition, in our opinion also cannot be entertained by this Court.
As regards prayer no.1, we notice that a writ in the nature of Quo Warranto has been sought requiring the respondent no.6 to establish or prove as to under which lawful authority is he holding the public office of Assistant Director (Soil Testing/Culture), Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, Meerut. This Court sitting at Lucknow exercises its writ jurisdiction in respect of any cause of action which arises or emanates within the territories of our Oudh. The respondent no.6 is presently posted and seated at Meerut and, as such, if any writ as has been prayed by the petitioners in this public interest litigation, is to be issued, that would reach at Meerut. The place of posting against whom the writ of quo warranto is sought for is also at Meerut and hence in respect of prayer no.1 as well, this Court sitting at Lucknow is unable to entertain the writ petition. At this juncture learned counsel for the petitioners prays that the petitioners may be permitted to institute these proceedings in relation to prayer no.1 before this Court at Allahabad.
Accordingly, this petition is disposed of with the aforesaid observations and directions and also with liberty to the petitioners to file a fresh petition before this Court at Allahabad.
We make it clear that liberty granted to the petitioner by this order is confined to prayer no.1 of this petition.
Order Date :- 12-05-2022 pks/