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22. It is submitted that the appointment and removal of the petitioner from the post of ECDS is not within the scope of powers of the respondent Council and the chairman, rather the same can only be done with the prior approval from the respondent Ministry as mentioned under Article 40 of the AOA, and therefore, such suspension is bad in law.

23. It is also submitted that the respondent Ministry vide order dated 17th February, 2022 had directed the respondent Chairman and the Council to follow the provisions of the CCA rules and also suggested three names for constitution of the inquiry committee, however, the respondent Chairman chose to ignore the same, therefore violated the settled principles of law.

57. Having dealt with the question of legality of the constitution of the inquiry committee, the next question arises before this Court is whether the COA is well within their power to constitute such a committee or is it considered as violation of the Article 40(b)(6) of the AOA. To answer the said question, it is imperative for this Court to interpret the said Article and also look into the other factors deemed necessary for rightful interpretation. Article 40(b)(6) of the AOA is reproduced herein:

61. The said view was also taken by the Division Bench of this Court in LPA 376/2022, filed by the petitioner. The relevant part of the order dated 2nd June, 2022 is reproduced herein:

"8. That said, the core of Mr Garg's submission before us concerns competence of the COA to trigger an inquiry against the appellant.
8.1. In this context, Mr Garg has drawn our attention to Article 40(6) of Articles of Association of the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC). For the sake of convenience, the said provision is extracted hereafter:

8.5. Be that as it may, Article 40 concerns the powers of the COA. There are several powers conferred on the COA and amongst such array" of powers, power to appoint, remove or suspend employees are also conferred on the COA, as would be evident upon a perusal of Article 40(6), extracted above.

8.6. However, insofar as EDCS/Deputy Director, Assistant Director or any other officer equivalent thereto is concerned, the appointment or removal of such officers cannot be effected by the COA without the prior approval of the Central Government i.e., the Ministry of Commerce/Textiles.