Judgement Details

Government of Bangladesh and Others. vs. Qamrun Nahar and Others.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BANGLADESH (APPELLATE DIVISION)

Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal Nos. 1736 and 2063 of 2012

Decided On: 20.07.2014

Appellants: Government of Bangladesh and Ors. Vs. Respondent: Qamrun Nahar and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Nazmun Ara Sultana, Syed Mahmud Hossain and Muhammad Imman Ali, JJ.

Counsels:
For Appellant/Petitioner/Plaintiff: Biswajit Deb Nath, Deputy Attorney-General Instructed by B. Hossain, Advocate-on-Record and Madhu Maloti Chowdhury Barua, Advocate-on-Record

For Respondents/Defendant: Ashrafuzzaman Khan, Advocate-on-Record

Subject: Employment Laws

Mentioned IN

Prior History:
From the Judgment and Order dated 24.02.2011 passed by the High Court Division in Writ Petition No. 5346 of 2010 and Writ Petition No. 5347 of 2010

Disposition:
Petition Dismissed

JUDGMENT

Nazmun Ara Sultana, J.

1. Delay in filing the Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal No. 2063 of 2012 be condoned.

2. Both these Civil Petitions for Leave to Appeal, at the instance of the Government of Bangladesh and others, have been directed against the judgment and order dated 24.02.2011 passed by the High Court Division in Writ Petition No. 5346 of 2010 along with Writ Petition No. 5347 of 2010 making the rules absolute.

3. Both the above writ petitions were filed calling in question the memo No.  dated 16.06.2010 passed under the signature of the respondent No. 3 cancelling the enlistment of the writ-petitioners' institution, namely, Ramanathpur School and College, Khoksha, Kushtia and Dhokra Kole High School, Khoksha, Kushtia in the monthly payment order (MPO).

4. In Writ Petition No. 5346 of 2010 the writ-petitioners' case was that Ramanathpur School and College, Kushtia was established in the year 1986 and the writ petitioners were appointed as teachers of different subjects in the said institution for secondary level in different years and since after their appointment, they had been performing their duties with full satisfaction of all concerned. That the Headmaster and Chairman of the managing committee submitted applications to the respondent No. 1 for enlistment of the secondary level of the said institution in the MPO list which was received by the respondent No. 1 on 24.02.2010. After proper securitization of those applications the respondent No. 3 approved the same and enlisted the secondary level of the institution in the list of MPO for a period of one year vide memo No.  dated 06.05.2010. Subsequently, the respondent No. 2 vide memo No.  dated 31.05.2010 published a fresh list of 1483 educational institutions in which the name of the petitioner's institution was posted at serial No. 37. When the petitioner's were waiting for the government portion of salary all on a sudden the respondent No. 2 vide impugned memo No.  dated 16.06.2010 without citing any reason whatsoever declared that the memo issued earlier on 06.05.2010 pursuant to which the name of the petitioner was enlisted in the MPO list be treated as inoperative. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with that impugned memo the petitioners have preferred this writ petition and obtained rule.

5. In Writ Petition No. 5347 of 2010 the case of writ-petitioners was that their institution, namely, Dhokra Kole High School, Khoksha, Kushtia was established in the year 1965 and the writ petitioners were appointed as teachers of different subjects in the said institution in the vocational part in different years and since after their appointment, they have been performing their duties with full satisfaction of all concerned. That the school through its Headmaster and Chairman of the managing committee submitted application on 17.02.2010 to the respondent No. 1 for enlistment of the vocational part of the said institution in the MPO list. After proper securitization of that application the respondent No. 3 approved the same and enlisted the vocational part of that institution in the list of MPO for a period of one year vide memo No.  dated 06.05.2010. Subsequently, the respondent No. 2 vide memo No.  dated 31.05.2010 published a fresh list of 1483 educational institutions in which the name of the petitioner's institution was posted at serial No. 45. When the petitioner's were waiting for the government portion of salary all on a sudden the respondent No. 2 vide impugned memo No.  dated 16.06.2010 without citing any reason whatsoever declared that the memo issued earlier on 06.05.2010 pursuant to which the name of the petitioners' institution was enlisted in the MPO list be treated as inoperative. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with that impugned memo the petitioners have preferred this writ petition and obtained rule.

6. A Division Bench of the High Court Division heard both the rules analogously and by the impugned judgment and order made both the rules absolute and declared the impugned memo No.  dated 16.06.2010 so far cancellation of enlistment of Ramanathpur School and College, Khoksha, Kushtia and Dhokra Kole High School, Khoksha, Kushtia without lawful authority and of no legal effect and also directed the respondents to enlist the name of the petitioners' educational institutions in the MPO list, provided the said institutions duly comply with the requirements as provided in the Janabal Kathamo Nitimala, 2010 within a period of 90(ninety) days from the date of receipt of the certified copy of that judgment and order.

7. Mr. Biswajit Deb Nath, the learned Deputy Attorney General appearing for the leave-petitioner-government though has made some submissions assailing the impugned judgment and order of the High Court Division, but could not say anything as to the reasons for excluding the name of the writ-petitioners' institutions from the list of MPO.

8. However, we have gone through the impugned judgment and order of the High Court Division and the materials on record. It appears that the High Court Division, considering the facts that both the educational institutions of both the writ petitions had been duly affiliated and obtained recognition from the concerned authority and subsequently in due compliance of the requirements as provided in the  published on 04.02.2010 the name of the petitioners' institutions were included in the list of MPO by the Ministry of Education vide memo No.  dated 06.05.2010 and were posted at serial Nos. 150 and 96 of that list and that in the subsequent list also dated 31.05.2010 enlisting 1483 educational institutions of the country the name of the writ petitioners' institutions were included at serial Nos. 37 and 45 found that the sudden exclusion of the petitioners' institutions from the list of the MPO by the impugned memo dated 16.06.2010 without assigning any reason whatsoever has been illegal.

9. The High Court Division commented thus: "Excluding the name of the schools from the list of MPO without citing any reason whatsoever is a glaring instance of violation of the principle of natural justice. Furthermore, the respondent government did not allege that the said schools had violated any conditions as stipulated in the published on 04.02.2010 or that the school authority had been provided with opportunity to defend its case. In that view of the matter we find substance in the rule for consideration."

10. We find no reason to interfere with this above observation and findings of the High Court Division.

11. Admittedly, both the educational institutions in question were included in the MPO list after observance of all formalities and compliance of requirements. But subsequently the names of these educational institutions were excluded from that list without assigning any reason whatsoever. Before the court also the contesting respondents could not assign any reason for excluding these educational institutions from the list of MPO.

12. In the circumstances we find no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court Division and hence both these Civil Petitions for Leave to Appeal be dismissed.