Tripura High Court

Sri Rupak Debroy vs The State Of Tripura on 5 February, 2021

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                     HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA
                           AGARTALA

                            W.P. (C) No.791/2020

Sri Rupak Debroy
S/o Late Sudhir Ranjan Debroy, resident of Dhaleswar, Agartala,
P.O.- Dhaleswar, P.S - East Agartala, West Tripura, PIN-799007

                                                        .....Petitioner(s)

                            Versus

1. The State of Tripura,
   Represented by the Secretary, Government of Tripura,
   Youth affairs and Sports Department, New Secretariat Complex,
   PO- Bidhan Sabha, PIN 799010, Agartala, West Tripura

2. The Director
   Youth affairs and Sports Department, Government of Tripura,
   Siksha Bhawan, 4th Floor, Office Lane, Agartala, P.O- Agartala,
   West Tripura, Pin-799001.
                                                       .....Respondent(s)

For Petitioner(s)            : Mr. C.S. Sinha, Advocate.
                               Ms. Swarupa Chisim, Advocate.

For Respondent(s)            : Mr. Debalay Bhattacharjee, GA.


       HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. AKIL KURESHI

Date of hearing and judgment : 05.02.2021.

Whether fit for reporting    : No.


                    JUDGMENT & ORDER (ORAL)


      Petitioner has challenged a Memorandum dated 13.11.2020 under

which a charge has been leveled against him of holding the post of Office
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bearers in six sports associations during different periods from 1993 to

2008 without the permission of the department.


2.       Facts

are as under:

The petitioner is holding the post of Junior Physical Instructor. The

Director of Youth Affairs Sports, Tripura had issued a Memorandum dated

11.03.2016 which contained only one Article of Charge namely that the

delinquent was the Office bearer in several associations which positions he

held without permission of the department. In this charge sheet, the

petitioner was alleged to have held different positions of Office bearers in

different sports associations as under:

 Sl.      Name of Association             Address            Post held by Sri
 No.                                                         Rupak Debroy
  1      Tripura State Olympic     Sports Villa, Dhaleswar      Secretary
         Association                Road No.8, Agartala,         General
                                    Tripura, Pin-799007,
                                   Tel. No. 03812318902,
                                    Fax No. 0381227468/
                                        03812318902
                                           e-mail:
                                  [email protected]
 2.      Indian       Olympic                -do-             Associate Joint
         Association                                            Secretary
     3   Tripura Amateur State              -do-                Secretary
         Boxing Association
     4   Tripura     Volleyball             -do-             Chairman Ad-hoc
         Association                                            Committee
     5   Tripura     Wrestling              -do-              Hony. Secretary
         Association                                              General
     6   All India Karate Judo              -do-               Joint General
         Federation                                              Secretary
     7   Tripura        Wushu               -do-                 President
         Association
     8   Tripura        Bridge              -do-             General Secretary



         Association
     9   Indian         Boxing             -do-                 Secretary
         Federation
 10      Tripura Billiard &                -do-             General Secretary
         Snooker
 11      Hockey India                      -do-                Secretary
 12      All Tripura Carom                 -do-             General Secretary
         Association
 13      Tripura State Rowing              -do-                 President
         Association
 14      Kayaking & Canoeing               -do-             General Secretary
         Association
 15      Paralympics                       -do-                 President
         Association of Tripura
 16      Savate Federation of              -do-             Secretary General
         India

3. The petitioner had filed W.P. (C) No.84 of 2019 in which he had

taken up the question of his voluntary retirement which the department had

refused to accept. In such petition, by an order dated 22.02.2019, the

learned Single Judge issued followed directions:-

"On consideration of the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner, it is directed that the respondent No.2. i.e., the Director of Youth Affairs and Sport Department, Government of Tripura, shall complete the disciplinary proceeding within a period of two months from the date of passing of this order, failing which the proceeding initiated against the petitioner shall be treated to be dropped of automatically."

4. According to this order of the Single Judge, if department failed to

complete the departmental inquiry within two months from the date of the

order, the proceedings would be automatically dropped. Undisputedly, the

inquiry was not completed within the said time frame and by virtue of the

order of the High Court, therefore, the inquiry would be treated to have

been dropped.

5. Be that as it may, the petitioner had to approach the High Court

again by filing W.P. (C) No.613 of 2019 since the department was not

prepared to accept the petitioner's offer of voluntary retirement. This

petition was disposed of by the Single Judge by an order dated 31.01.2020,

operative portion of which reads as under:

"41. For the reasons stated and analyzed above, in my opinion, the respondent No.2, being the appointing authority has committed an error in passing the impugned order dated 14.05.2019 rejecting the prayer for voluntary retirement of the petitioner from service by way of introducing the theory of "public interest‟ and other ancillary grounds, which are alien in the statute and deserves interference. Accordingly, the impugned order dated 14.05.2019 is set aside and quashed. Once the contingency of pending disciplinary proceeding is removed, the petitioner must be held to be lawfully retired as notified by him from the date such contingency is removed and his prayer dated 23.04.2019 deserves to be accepted as it fulfills all the essential elements of Rule 48-A of the said Rule. However, since the petitioner has been in service and the respondents have not given effect to the prayer/notice of voluntary retirement of the petitioner, in this circumstance, the respondents are directed to accept the prayer/notice of the petitioner for voluntary retirement from service immediately with all retiral benefits in terms of the relevant Rules engrafted in the Scheme. The entire exercise has to be completed within a

period of 30(thirty) days from the date the petitioner shall furnish a copy of this order to the respondent No.2."

6. It is stated that the Government has challenged the said judgment of

the learned Single Judge in Writ Appeal in which the judgment is stayed.

In the meantime, the department issued a fresh charge sheet to the

petitioner on 13.11.2020. In this charge sheet, the basic allegation against

the petitioner was identical as that made in the previous charge sheet dated

11.03.2016. In this charge sheet, it was alleged that the petitioner was

holding the position of Office bearer since six sports organizations details

of which are mentioned below and which he did without the permission of

the department:

SL. Name of the Sports Association Regd No & Dated No.

1. Archery Association of Tripura 4853 dated 04.11.2004 2 Tripura Amateur Boxing Association 3104 dated 07.08.1998 of Tripura 3 Fencing Association of Tripura 5421 dated 01.09.2007 4 Tripura State Olympic Association 5612 dated 17.09.2008 5 Wushu Association of Tripura 2161 dated 05.01.1993 6 Taekwondo Association of Tripura 4252 dated 01.10.2003

7. This charge sheet the petitioner has challenged in the present

petition. In response to notice issued, the respondents have appeared and

filed reply along with which a copy of order dated 23.12.2020 is annexed

which shows that the disciplinary authority found that the charges leveled

against the petitioner under the first charge sheet dated 11.03.2016 were

not established and that therefore the charges were dropped.

8. In my view, the subsequent charge sheet is nothing but

Memorandum containing cosmetic changes in the allegations as compared

to the previous charge sheet. The foundation of the charge in both the

charge sheets was identical namely of the petitioner was holding the

position of Office bearers in different sports organizations without prior

permission of the department. The first charge sheet stood automatically