Meghalaya High Court: A Division Judge Bench of Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, CJ., H.S. Thangkhiew, J., dismissed a writ appeal filed against the order of single judge, whereby the writ petition of the appellant was dismissed.
The main issue that arose before the Court was whether the order of termination of petitioner from the post of teacher is in violation of principles of natural justice.
The Court observed that the managing committee had terminated the services of petitioner due to his bad character, however, the term bad character was used in the order of the managing committee for protecting, exploitation of the minor child, her parents and then also in order to cover up the actual act of the petitioner. The petitioner had nowhere during the course of replies or arguments denied that he had committed the act of sexual assault, rather from his submissions it seems that he was apologetic about his actions and he had also promised to not repeat such behaviour in future. Hence, even if the petitioner was given an opportunity of hearing, the result would not change. The Court observed that the respondent had rightly cited the judgment of Aligarh Muslim University v. Mansoor Ali Khan, (2000) 7 SCC 529, wherein it was held that there can be instances where even if the principles of natural justice were not followed, the order need not be set aside.
The Court held that in the instant case even if an opportunity was given to the petitioner for presenting his case, the result would not change since the petitioner had indirectly accepted that he was liable for sexual harassment. Resultantly, the appeal was dismissed and the order of the single judge was upheld.[Dharani Kr. Koch v. State of Meghalaya, 2018 SCC OnLine Megh 259, order dated 05-12-2018]
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thank you