SC upholds removal of lecturer for indecent behaviour

New Delhi, Apr 11 (UNI) The Supreme Court has upheld the removal of a college lecturer found guilty of having behaved indecently with a girl student while she was in hospital.

A bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Lokeshwar Singh Panta in judgment dated April 9 set aside the Allahabad High Court judgment ordering reinstatement of Lalit Mohan Upadhyay, lecturer in Mathematics in Kumaon Engineering College in Dwarahat of district Almora, which fell in Uttar Pradesh at the time of the incident.

The bench observed, ''In our view, the services of L M Upadhyay during probation could have been terminated by the authority, but the Principal and Board of Governors had adopted a reasonable and fair mode of accepting his pending letter of resignation instead of terminating his services for unsuitability.'' The apex court allowed the appeal of Secretary, Technical Education, Uttar Pradesh, and others and rejected the contention of the respondent Upadhyay that departmental inquiry should have been held before accepting his resignation which was procured by force.

On March 18, 1993, a girl student of B.E. second year fell seriously ill. She later filed a complaint against Upadhyay for behaving indecently with her in hospital where she was taken by the respondent and a lady clerk under the orders of the Principal for treatment.

An inquiry was ordered and the allegations were found correct.

An inquiry conducted by Prof N L Kachhera also found the allegations true and later SDM, Ranikhet, in his report to the DM, Almorah, also confirmed that the allegations of the girl student were true.

Board of Governors accepted the resignation which was submitted by the respondent when he came to know of the complaint and subsequent inquiry on Jan 17, 1994.

UNI