Allahabad HC Reinstates Noida Univ Officer Fired After Sexual Harassment Complaint

The bench of Justice Manju Rani Chauhan, on September 16, 2025, quashed the termination order dated December 14, 2024, passed by the university registrar and directed that Meena Singh be reinstated to her post.

Singh, who joined the university in 2010 as a Private Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor, was regularised in service in 2018 and subsequently promoted as Staff Officer. She submitted that her service record was consistently marked as “outstanding” or “good” until she became embroiled in a prolonged dispute with the then officiating Registrar, S.N. Tiwari.

Singh lodged a complaint against Tiwari in August 2020, alleging misbehaviour and sexual harassment. Following this, a series of complaints surfaced against her, including accusations of irregularities in her appointment and misuse of the academic title “Dr.” without possessing a doctoral degree. An FIR under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC was also registered but later closed in 2021 after the police filed a final report exonerating her.

Despite this, the university authorities initiated disciplinary proceedings which resulted in four successive termination orders. Each time, Singh challenged the orders before the High Court, which repeatedly quashed them and directed the university to conduct proceedings in accordance with law. However, instead of adhering to the court’s directions, the university continued to reinitiate enquiries, often changing committees and ignoring her replies.

In the latest round, the Registrar issued a fresh termination order on December 14, 2024, relying on an enquiry report prepared by an external committee. Singh assailed this decision before the High Court in a writ petition.

The High Court, after reviewing the record, came down heavily on the university. It observed that the disciplinary action was motivated by extraneous considerations and driven by mala fide intent to victimise Singh for her complaint against Tiwari. Significantly, the alleged complainant, Vishnu Pratap Singh, in whose name a legal notice had been circulated, had himself denied filing any complaint against her.

"The manner in which the petitioner has been proceeded against, despite the absence of any legal or factual basis, indicates that the action was not guided by bona fide considerations but was motivated by extraneous reasons with the sole object of victimising the petitioner. Such conduct, in the considered opinion of this Court, amounts to an arbitrary exercise of power and cannot be countenanced in law," court said.

Justice Chauhan held that merely writing “Dr.” or stating that one was pursuing a Ph.D. could not amount to misconduct in the absence of any evidence of misrepresentation or wrongful gain.

"No material has been produced to demonstrate that the petitioner ever derived or was conferred any advantage by mentioning in her application, at the time of her selection as Private Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor, that she was pursuing Ph.D. The authorities have proceeded merely on surmises and conjectures, and that too after the petitioner had rendered several years of unblemished and satisfactory service," court noted.

Court cited Supreme Court precedents, including Union of India v. H.C. Goel (1964) and Roop Singh Negi v. Punjab National Bank and others (2009) to underline that disciplinary action based on suspicion, conjectures or mala fide intent cannot stand the scrutiny of law.

“The initiation of proceedings against the petitioner on such untenable grounds reflects a clear abuse of process and smacks of mala fides,” the court remarked, adding that repeated enquiries in violation of earlier High Court orders revealed an intent to punish her without just cause.

Court concluded that a case was made out in favour of the sacked petitioner and, therefore, it directed Gautam Buddha University to reinstate Singh to her post of Staff Officer to the Vice-Chancellor.

Case Title: Smt. Meena Singh vs State of UP and 3 Others

Order Date: September 16, 2025

Bench: Justice Manju Rani Chauhan