Vice-chairman of the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) Upendra Koirala, who was found guilty by a PAC investigation, filed a petition at the apex court demanding that all decisions of the board to punish him be scrapped. [break]
In his writ petition, Koirala said PAC has no legal authority to decide to punish anyone as a decision to punish those allegedly involved in any misappropriation can only be taken either by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) or by a court of law.
PAC decided to punish HSEB officials including Koirala and subsequently dispatched letters in the names of the CIAA, Education Minister Sarvendra Nath Sukla and Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire, asking them to punish the HSEB officials as per its decision.
PAC had asked the CIAA to punish Koirala on a charge of corruption while the minister and the chief secretary were asked to punish him as per their respective legal provisions.
"PAC can investigate matters. But it cannot decide whether to punish anyone," reads the writ petition, adding, "PAC´s decision to punish the HSEB vice-chairman was outside its jurisdiction. The CIAA and the minister themselves are legally authorized to punish anyone. Thus, all PAC decisions to that effect should be revoked."
PAC had instructed the education minister, the chief secretary and the CIAA to take legal action against the top officials at HSEB in connection with the answer-sheet scam on July 22.
PAC instructed them on the basis of a report submitted by a high-level probe constituted by the Ministry of Education (MoE) with a mandate to look into the scam.
The report indicted HSEB´ Vice-chairman Koirala and Member Secretary Ram Bahadur Khadka for flouting rules in awarding a contract for printing and distributing 44.42 million answer-sheets for this year´s grade XI and XII examinations.
"PAC cannot play the role of the CIAA and the courts," states the petition, adding, "PAC´s decision to punish Koirala is controversial and out of its jurisdiction. Therefore, PAC´s decisions should be rendered null and void."
PAC Secretary Som Bahadur Thapa claimed that the decision to take action against Koirala and other HSEB officials was appropriate.
"I don´t claim that we are absolutely correct in our every decision. There might have been flaws. The court will correct us if there are any flaws in our decisions. I therefore take the writ petition positively," Thapa told myrepublica.com.
Allegedly irregularities in awarding the contract for printing and distributing answer-sheets to Om Shiva and Surya Deep Press of Kathmandu were exposed by HSEB´s financial comptroller Kameshwar Mandal. PAC had taken up the issue following media reports quoting Mandal.
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