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30. It is stated that several students' organizations, groups, people, alleged irregularities, misconduct, malpractices, dereliction of duty/illegal exercise of authority by Petitioner during his tenure as Registrar with the university, which complaints were made to the Chancellor's office.

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31. It is submitted that the Governor/Chancellor being vested with powers under Section 9 of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994 as well as the Section 9 of the new Maharashtra Universities Act, 2016 confers powers on the Governor to call for the report or explanation or information with respect to any matter or affairs of the university and after considering the same to issue directions as deemed fit in the interest of the university, student, public, which are to be complied by the university. It is submitted that the Governor / Chancellor exercised the powers and issued letter/ sanction dated 29th February, 2016 to the Respondent no.2- university, directing conduct of detailed enquiry against Petitioner into various issues/allegations made by ABVP Kolhapur and to take appropriate action in the light of findings of the enquiry in a time bound manner and submit 'Action Taken Report' for information of Chancellor.

(ii) whether the Respondents could have initiated departmental proceedings against the Petitioner after 31 st December 2017 by which date the Petitioner retired from the service by superannuation.

46. It is undisputed that Petitioner was appointed as a Lecturer in the Respondent No. 2-Shivaji University with effect from 3 rd February 1987. He then got promoted to the post of Professor. In 2010, he became Registrar of Shivaji University and held the said post till June 2015. Thereafter, from 15 th June 2015 onwards, he started working as a Professor till his superannuation on 31 st December 2017 in the Department of Zoology of the said University. Around 22nd February 2006, a delegation of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarathi Parishad (ABVP), Kolhapur, handed over a memorandum to the Governor of Maharashtra containing alleged complaints against Petitioner about various irregularities made in the University during his tenure as Registrar from 2010 to 2015 Nikita Gadgil 24 of 43 Final Judgment-WP 11955-18.odt requesting the Hon'ble Governor to make an inquiry. On 29 th February 2016, the Office of the Governor in his capacity as a Chancellor requested the respondent no. 2-University to make a detailed inquiry into various issues raised /allegations made by ABVP, Kolhapur, vide its memorandum dated 22 nd February 2016 and to take proper action in the light of the findings of the inquiry in a time bound manner and also requested Respondent No. 2 to submit the action taken report for the information of the Chancellor. The Respondent No. 1/ State Government appointed an Inquiry Committee consisting of Shri Deshpande, the Divisional Joint Director of Higher Education, Solapur Division.

60. Let us examine the communication dated 29 th February, 2016 from the office of the Chancellor which is purported to be the sanction of the Governor to institute the departmental proceedings. Perusal of the said communication suggests that a delegation of ABVP, Kolhapur met the then Governor in his capacity as Chancellor of Respondent no.2-university on 22 nd February, 2016 and handed over to him a memorandum of complaints against Petitioner in his capacity as Registrar of Respondent No.2- university about alleged irregularities during his tenure from 2010- 2015. The Secretary to the Governor of Maharashtra in his His Excellency's capacity as Chancellor forwarded a copy of the said memorandum alongwith enclosures and requested the vice- Chancellor of Respondent no.2-university to make the detailed enquiry into various issues raised/allegations made by the ABVP, Kolhapur and to take appropriate action in the light of the enquiry Nikita Gadgil 35 of 43 Final Judgment-WP 11955-18.odt in a time bound manner. It was also requested that the Action Taken Report in the matter be submitted for information of the Chancellor. Though it is true that Government is defined in the Rule 9(21) of the said Pension Rules to mean the Governor of Maharashtra, the said communication was to conduct an enquiry and submit an action taken report.
61. In our view, the said communication from the office of the Governor as Chancellor of the Respondent No.2-university does not accord any sanction but merely directs conduct of time bound enquiry into the allegations pursuant to the memorandum handed over by ABVP, Kolhapur on 22nd February, 2016 and to submit Action Taken Report. For a sanction, in our respectful opinion, there has to be a request first for such sanction, which is conspicuously absent. Moreover, there is a general direction to look into the allegations. Thereafter, State Government appointed Deshpande Committee. Respondent No.2 appointed Shanbhag Committee. After Shanbhag Committee's first report, first show cause notice dated 24.10.2017 was issued and pursuant to the Deshpande report and Shanbhag report dated 21/12/2017, second show cause notice dated 30/12/2017 was issued to Petitioner but the Charge Sheet came to Nikita Gadgil 36 of 43 Final Judgment-WP 11955-18.odt be issued only on 28/29 August 2018 and for which no sanction appears to have been taken. It would, therefore, have been appropriate if an action taken report should have been submitted to the Hon'ble Governor after the enquiry (ies) conducted before issuing the Article of Charges dated 28th August, 2018 upon Petitioner. In our view, exercise of powers by the Hon'ble Governor under Section 9 of the Universities Act to seek explanation/information with respect to any matter or affairs of the university and to call for report is not the same as accord of sanction by Government to institute departmental proceedings against a retired employee.