Alleged contemnor No1 Sri Susanta Mondal and the alleged contemnor No. 2 namely Balaram Pan are present in Court pursuant to my order dated
June 27, 2018 and they are directed to depose in connection with the present contempt application being CPAN 528 of 2018. The said deposition is
annexed in separate pages with this order. Deposition in separate sheets After the above deposition is over, the following order is passed:
On a condition that the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2, who according to their own admission are the joint signatories without whose signatures no
fund can be released by the school, shall sign the cheque amounting to Rs. 1,40,000/- in favour of the present writ petitioner within 48 hours from
today, the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 are given liberty to depart from this Court under police custody. In the event that the said cheque is so
signed and handed over to the writ petitioner, the officers of the police shall release the two alleged contemnors as aforesaid from their custody.
‘By custody’ I mean in this context that the police officers shall be posted in the offices of the first and the second alleged contemnors and shall
be in duty outside their respective residences till the cheque aforesaid is signed and handed over to the petitioner.
In the event that this condition is complied with, the hearing of the present application for contempt shall stand adjourned for a period of four weeks
from the date of handing over of the said cheque. During this time the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 shall be entitled to file affidavits in opposition to
the contempt application where they may disclose all documents in support of their contentions. The questions and answers recorded today show that
admittedly the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 did not comply with the order of this Court despite notice and knowledge. They have allowed the writ
petitioner to join on June 10, 2018 but non-payment of honorarium could not be explained by them sufficiently excepting that they did not have
sufficient funds even though they admitted that they did not know exactly how much arrears of honarirum was/were payable to the petitioner.
In such view of the matter though on simple calculation the arrears I had directed the School Authorities to pay to the petitioner would come to around
Rs. 2,80,000/- for the period between December 2015 and May 2018 (both days inclusive), I now direct as an interim measure to pay half of such an
amount id est Rs.1,40,000/- as aforesaid. The officers of the police have the gratitude of this Court for their assistance. I shall, however, require them
to assist the Court further in the above manner.
The writ petitioner is granted liberty to incorporate the names of the three persons who have prevented the said alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 from
allowing the writ petitioner to rejoin his duties as admitted by the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 in their respective depositions. The matter shall come
up for further consideration on Monday (July 16, 2018) when the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 shall once again report compliance of this Court. In
case the cheque is handed over as directed and the writ petitioner confirms it, then the presence of the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 may be
dispensed with.
However, the alleged contemnor Nos. 1 and 2 are allowed to depart from this Court under the custody of the police officers as directed. Deposition of
Headmaster (Balaram Pan, the alleged contemnor No.2/respondent No. 7 in the main writ petition) on 11th July, 2018.
Q. Do you understand English?
A. Yes.
Q. What is your name?
A. Balaram Pan.
Q. What is your designation?
A. Headmaster.
Q. Who is the Secretary of your School?
A. Sponsored Management Headmaster is the Secretary of the School.
Q. Are you aware of the interim order dated May 10, 2018?
A. The Headmaster of the institution is fully aware of the order as passed by Hon’ble Justice of this Hon’ble Court and I communicated the
matter to the Hon’ble President and the other members of the Managing Committee; but they kept delaying the matters. I cautioned them about
the consequence of this inaction.. Unfortunately however, about three weeks later Mr. Kamal Kumar Santra (petitioner in this writ petition) was
allowed to join the institution on June 13, 2018. As a Headmaster of the school being the respondent No. 7 I demand apology before Hon’ble
Justice.
Q. You are demanding apology from the Court?
A. Sorry, I am submitting apology before this Court. I would like to further deposit that the fact remains that being the Headmaster of the Institution I
am only a spokesman of the Managing Committee and I have to whatever as advised by the Management. Whatever decision the Management takes
it is officially corresponded by me. Unfortunately some of the members of the Managing Committee strictly prohibited me from allowing the petitioner
though the District Project Officer, Sarbha Siksha Mission asked the School Authorities to allow Mr. Santra (the petitioner herein) to join. This fact
was also communicated to the learned District Project Officer by me and I also submitted apology before the said District Project Officer. All
connected documents I have with me and if demanded, I can produce all the documents before Your Lordship.
Q. Can you name the persons in the Managing Committee who prevented you from complying with the order dated May 10, 2018?
A. Yes. Their names are Soumen Maiti, Dharitri Goswami and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty.
Q. Can you provide their addresses to my officers?
A. Among those, two persons are already members of the Managing Committee of the School.
Q. Why was the honorarium of the petitioner as directed by this Court not released?
A. I will be considering myself as not involved in the crime. That is why I am not taking the responsibility of not paying the honorarium as Headmaster
of the institution.
Q. Do you mean to say that you have nothing to do with the non-release of the honorarium? Who are the persons in the school not from District
Project Officer and also not from the concerned District Inspector of Schools will release the honorarium?
A. I do not understand. Any expenditure which is made by the school, being the Secretary of the School and the President of the Managing
Committee, we jointly sign on cheque and release money for the school.
Q. Are you prepared to sign the cheque in favour of the petitioner here and now? Do you have the cheque book with you here? A. No the cheque
book is not with me now.
Q. If you are given 48 hours’ time will you sign it and comply with the order of this Court?
A. Quite impossible for me to release the claim of Mr. Santra (the petitioner) from the school fund. Q. Why?
A. School fund is not the headmaster’s own fund. Therefore, I am expressing my inability to sign the cheque.
Q. If you are ordered by the Court to sign, will you sign the cheque?
A. Yes I am compelled to comply with the Court’s order.
Q. As a last chance you and the President of the Managing Committee are directed to jointly sign the cheque and release the arrear honorarium to the
petitioner within 48 hours. Will you do it? A. Of course.
Deposition of President (alleged contemnor No. 1/ respondent No. 6 in the main writ petition.
Q. What is your name?
A. Susanta Mondal
Q. What is your designation?
A. President of Panna Bharat Ratna Roy Vidyamandir.
Q. Do you understand English?
A. If I may be permitted to depose in vernacular, it would be convenient for me (The Assistant Court Officer is requested to interpret the entire
deposition) Q. Are you aware of the order dated May 10, 2018?
A. I became the President of the Managing Committee of the concerned school in September, 2017. At the time when the order of the High Court
was communicated, I was in personal difficulties quite apart from the Panchayat election procedure. Even then on my own efforts I firmly managed to
get the writ petitioner to join his duties which the Hon’ble Court can confirm from the writ petitioner.
Q. So is it your case that the writ petitioner has joined?
A. Yes.
Q. Is it a fact you are a co-signatory for release of any funds from the school?
A. Since there are joint accounts, those are operated by joint signatures of the President and the Secretary and, therefore, funds cannot be released
without my signature as well as that of the Headmaster cum Secretary. As the President of the school, I have no right to sell the property of the
school. Furthermore, the source of the funds is limited. I do not know from where I can pay the honorarium to the petitioner. I also volunteer that the
writ petitioner has not attended the school from August 21, 2013. The District Project Officer had ordered him (the petitioner) to join on May 26, 2015.
At that time there was a different President of the Managing Committee, but the same Headmaster. Whatever was done was done by them.
Q. Do you know how much exactly is to be paid as honorarium to the writ petitioner?
A. I do not know exactly.
Q. If you are directed by Court will you sign the cheque?
A. Yes I will do so. (Again the Secretary cum Headmaster is requested to depose) Later part of the deposition of the Secretary cum Headmaster.
Q. How much money is the petitioner entitled to get as arrear honorarium? Do you know?
A. Actually I do not exactly tell you the figure. It depends on the calculation of the honorarium.
Q. What was his monthly honarirum?
A. Rs. 10,000/- per month.
