The Allahabad High Court has quashed orders passed recently by the Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh University Meerut relieving the Registrar "with immediate effect".
A division bench, comprising Justices Dilip Gupta and Vinod Kumar Misra, passed the order yesterday, after having reserved its judgement on March 11, while allowing the writ petition filed by the aggrieved Registrar Manoj Kumar Chauhan.
The court was of the view that the Vice-Chancellor did not have the power to issue a direction for relieving the Registrar "who had been duly appointed by the state government".
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The court also observed that "the state government was, in facts and circumstances of the case, justified in directing that the orders passed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University shall stand withdrawn and the petitioner should be permitted to work as a Registrar of the University".
Chauhan, a PCS officer, had taken over as the Registrar of the University on February 28, 2014. On October 21, 2014 the V-C passed an order relieving him "with immediate effect".
A subsequent order was passed on October 28, 2014 wherein displeasure was expressed over Chauhan continuing in his office despite the earlier order and a direction issued that no files be placed before him "without the Vice-Chancellor's approval".
This was followed by another order on November 14, 2014 whereby all Assistant Registrars, Deputy Registrars and Section Officers were asked "not to place any document or file" before the petitioner.
The court set aside the impugned orders passed by the Vice-Chancellor, stating that it was "not possible to sustain the same" and ruled "the petitioner shall be permitted to work as the Registrar of the University".
