Patna High Court fines AIG for initiating action against retired official

The Patna High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on AIG Umakant Sharan in a case related to initiating departmental inquiry against retired director, prison, Naval Prasad Singh. The departmental inquiry was ordered in October 2008 after Singh's superannuation in July, 2008.

The court took suo moto notice of the matter. Singh's counsel Sunil Kumar said that as the departmental proceedings were initiated after Singh's retirement and it relates to event which occurred four years before he retired, the validity of the proceedings were challenged in the court. The court of Justice A K Tripathi ruled that the counter reply filed by the AIG in this regard does not support any documentary evidence and was cryptic in nature.

 A division bench of Patna High Court, comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice M K Jha, on Wednesday directed the principal secretary, department of science and technology, the VC, Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur, and the AICTE officials to appear before the court on August 10 in a case related to providing affiliation to the Amrapali Institute of Technology, Lakhisarai. The court ordered them to be present in the court with all relevant records during the next hearing on August 10 and submit report stating their stand on the issue.

 A single bench of Justice Navniti Prasad Singh on Wednesday directed the universities of the state to pay salary to those teachers working till June 30 and whose retirement age were increased from 62 to 65 years earlier. The court also ruled that if any university was found not following the court's directive, salary of the VC, registrar and finance officer of the university concerned would be withheld. The court has fixed the next date of hearing in the case on August 10.

 The same bench on Wednesday put a stay on interview of 22 principals for different colleges under Magadh University (MU) which was to be held on Thursday. The court while staying the interviews directed the office of the chancellor, state government and MU to file reply within two weeks. The scheduled interviews were challenged on the ground that since MU does not have a full-fledged VC and is run by an acting VC, the same is not entitled to appoint regular principals. The court has fixed the next date of hearing after four weeks.

The same bench disposed of a PIL filed by JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh demanding special category status for Bihar. While disposing the case, the court asked the petitioner and the state government to put the matter before the Union government and the Planning Commission.