IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE TWELVETH DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.C.BHANU WRIT PETITION NO. 18600 OF 2011 Between: A.Humlal …PETITIONER AND The Principal Secretary to Govt. and others. ...RESPONDENTS The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.C.BHANU WRIT PETITION NO. 18600 of 2011 O R D E R: This Writ Petition is filed seeking to declare the action of respondent No.3 in issuing the suspension proceedings, dated 01.07.2010, as arbitrary and illegal. 2. The brief facts that are necessary for disposal of the present Writ Petition may be stated as follows: The petitioner was selected as a Programme Officer, vide proceedings No.212/DES-APARD/APREGS/Prog.Officers/2006, dated 05.06.2006, on contract basis for a period of two years on a monthly salary of Rs.9000/- with effect from the date of joining for training. The petitioner has undergone orientation programme from 05.06.2006 to 07.06.2006. The petitioner also worked as Programme Officer at Amrabad from 08.06.2006 to 05.06.2009. The Project Officer ITDA (PTG Chenchu) Srisailm, issued proceedings No.NREGS/3100/10, dated 26.06.2010 and directed the petitioner to report to the Project Director, DWMA, Mahabubnagar. Thereafter, respondent No.3 issued suspension order, dated 01.07.2010 basing on the Social Audit Report of second phase conducted from 30.08.2009 to 02.09.2009 and from 06.09.2009 to 18.09.2009, alleging that an amount of Rs.83,86,168/- was misused, and directed the petitioner to show cause as to why disciplinary and criminal action should not be initiated against him within seven days from the date of receipt of show cause notice. The petitioner gave a detailed representation to respondent No.3 on 20.07.2010, but so far no action has been taken by the respondents. Hence, the Writ Petition. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that though the petitioner was placed under suspension, no enquiry has been conducted and no orders have been passed so far and hence, he prays to set aside the suspension order. 4. An employee can be placed under suspension when there is prima facie a serious misconduct committed by him. The allegation is that the petitioner misused an amount of Rs.83,86,168/-. Therefore, the petitioner was rightly placed under suspension. One year has been elapsed and there was no progress in the enquiry proceedings. The petitioner cannot be kept under suspension forever. 5. Hence, the Writ Petition is disposed of directing the Enquiry Officer to complete the enquiry within a period of eight (8) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and thereafter, appropriate decision has to be taken by the Disciplinary Authority. There shall be no order as to costs. _______________ K.C.BHANU, J JULY 12, 2011 YVL