NAGPUR: Hearing the petition filed by the suspended employees of Meteorology Department’s Nagpur regional office, Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Murlidhar Giratkar of the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the State’s Chief Secretary and General Manager of the Met department to file their replies within three weeks.
The petitioner, Vinayak Nandanwar, and 26 other employees of the Nagpur regional office of the Met department claimed that they belong to Halba, Chhatri and Nahul castes under Scheduled Tribes (ST) and that they were issued caste certificates between 1978 and 1991. These employees were appointed between 1982 and 1998 on the posts reserved for ST candidates. Validation of their caste certificates were done during their appointments.
However, these 27 employees were suspended by the department on 13 August 2018 citing the reason that they didn’t validate their caste certificates as per Section 7 of the Castes Certificate Act. Before that, they were informed on 16 July 2018 about a departmental enquiry into the matter.
The employees have termed their suspension as illegal and challenged it in the High Court. The petitioners have demanded that the departmental enquiry and the suspension ordered be cancelled and the provision in Section 7 of the Castes Certificate Act be quashed.
Hearing the petition, the HC bench has sought replies from State’s Chief Secretary and General Manager of the Met department into the matter.
