JUDGMENT 1. THE Judgment of the Court was as follows: THE legality and/or validity of the decision of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education which was taken by the committee constituted under section 24 of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Act, 1963 in its meeting held on 14th July, 2009 on the issue regarding grant of approval to initiate disciplinary proceeding (2nd stage) against the charged employee namely the respondent No.3 herein, is under challenge in this writ petition at the instance of the school authority. THE said decision of the Board was communicated to the Secretary of the Managing Committee of Krishnapur Jadhunath Madhab Chandra High School by the Deputy Secretary Administration of the Board by his letter under Memo No. 24/124/C dated 26th August, 2009, being annexure P-6 to this writ petition at page 73. 2. LET me now consider as to how far the Board was justified in taking the aforesaid decision in the facts of the instant case. Earlier a disciplinary proceeding was initiated by the Managing Committee of the said school against the said charged employee for various charges mentioned in the show cause notice. The said disciplinary proceeding was ultimately culminated with the order of dismissal of the said charged employee and the resolution of the Managing Committee for dismissing the said charged employee was approved by the committee constituted under section 24 of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Act, 1963. 3. HOWEVER, the approval of the said resolution of the Managing Committee of the said School, granted by the said section 24 committee was not maintained in appeal before the appeal committee of the Board which set aside the entire disciplinary proceeding against the charged employee on 07- 06-2008, as according to the said appeal committee the said proceeding was not conducted in accordance with law and the charged employee was not given reasonable opportunity of hearing prior to awarding of punishment. While setting aside the said proceeding, the appeal committee granted liberty to the school authority to proceed afresh against the said employee by giving him all opportunities and by following all the principles of natural justice with a rider that if the school decides to continue with the proceeding, the school will have to allow the candidate either to join the school or to give him full salary in case the school wants to keep him away. Pursuant to the liberty as granted above by the appeal committee, the school authority proposed to hold an enquiry against the said employee afresh and accordingly informed the said employee about the enquiry which was proposed to be held against him by the school authority, by its letter dated 11th November, 2008 being annexure P-3 to this writ petition at page 30. The articles of charges on which such enquiry was proposed, were also mentioned in the said letter and the said employee was called upon to submit his reply to those articles of charges within 15 days from the date of receipt of the said letter. 4. THE said employee submitted his reply to the said article of charges to the Secretary of the Managing Committee of the said school on 28th November, 2008. An enquiry officer was appointed to enquire into the charges so framed against him. THE said enquiry officer, after holding an enquiry with the participation of the presenting officer of the school as well as the charged employee, submitted his report before the Managing Committee of the said school on 30th March, 2009. Thereafter, a copy of the said report along with the relevant papers relating to proceeding concerning the said employee was forwarded to the said charged employee by the school authority along with its letter dated 11th April, 2009 appearing at page 57 of the writ petition. By the said letter, the charged employee was called upon to submit his comments on the said report in writing within 15 days from the date of receipt of the said report. THE charged employee submitted his comments on the said report to the Secretary of the said school on 27th April, 2009. THE comments of the said charged employee is a part of the writ petition which is appearing at page 28 therein. THE charged employee submitted his comments on the said report to the Secretary of the said school on 27th April, 2009. THE comments of the said charged employee is a part of the writ petition which is appearing at page 28 therein. Subsequently, the Managing Committee of the said school, after considering the entire materials on record relating to the said enquiry proceeding, adopted a resolution in its meeting held on May, 2009 resolving a proposal to initiate a second stage of disciplinary proceeding against the said employee and accordingly a resolution was adopted for seeking approval of the Board for initiation of the second stage of disciplinary proceeding by the committee against the charged employee. 5. ON the basis of the said resolution, approval for initiation of the second stage of the disciplinary proceeding against the said employee was sought for from the Board, by sending the entire relevant papers in connection with the said disciplinary proceeding to the Board. 6. INSTEAD of granting approval to the said proposal of the school authority, the committee constituted under section 24 of the said Act resolved in its meeting held on 14th July, 2009 that the school authority be asked to furnish the specific proposal as per Board's Circular No. S/607 dated 21st June, 1982 and S/182 dated 6th November, 2006. The decision of the Board was communicated to the school authority by the letter written by the Deputy Secretary (Administration) on 26th August, 2009. The legality of such decision is impugned in this writ petition. For ascertaining the legality of the impugned decision, this Court is required to refer to the provision contained in Rule 28(8) of the Management Rules which deals with the procedure relating to initiation and conduct of the disciplinary proceeding against the teaching and non-teaching staff of the Government aided schools. The said provision contemplates conduct of such proceeding at two stages. The first stage of the said proceeding contemplates observation of the following procedure: i) Resolution of the Managing Committee containing the charges against the person to be proceeded against. ii) Formal charge-sheet to be issued to the person concerned, containing the articles of charges as per resolution of the Managing Committee. iii) Reply to the charge-sheet by the person proceeded against to be submitted to the managing Committee ordinarily within a fortnight from the date of receipt of the charge-sheet. ii) Formal charge-sheet to be issued to the person concerned, containing the articles of charges as per resolution of the Managing Committee. iii) Reply to the charge-sheet by the person proceeded against to be submitted to the managing Committee ordinarily within a fortnight from the date of receipt of the charge-sheet. iv) Consideration of the reply by the Managing Committee and its decision thereon with the underlying reasons for taking such decision to be stated in detail. 7. AFTER completion of these steps, the school authority is required to send copies of all those relevant papers to the Board seeking the Board's approval to initiate proceeding at the second stage of disciplinary proceeding. 8. ONCE such approval is granted by the Board, the school authority will initiate the second stage of disciplinary proceeding by observing the following procedures: i) The Managing Committee shall issue a show cause notice, on the basis of their resolution, to the person concerned ordinarily within a fortnight, specifying the nature of the punishment proposed to be awarded to him, as provided at Rule 28(8) of (8a). (Emphasis supplied to the underline portion). ii) On receipt of the person's reply to the show cause notice, the Managing Committee shall consider the reply in its meeting and take a decision therein in the form of a resolution. iii) The school management shall thereafter forward all relevant papers as mentioned in (i) and (ii) above to the Board for consideration, ordinarily within a month of the reply to the show cause notice, as indicated under (ii) above. The Board will then consider the case in all its aspects and decide it finally and communicate its decision to the school authority for implementation. The decision of the Board on the matter is final and binding on all concerned. 9. The Board will then consider the case in all its aspects and decide it finally and communicate its decision to the school authority for implementation. The decision of the Board on the matter is final and binding on all concerned. 9. THUS, if the provision contained in Rule 28(8) is scanned properly, there cannot be any hesitation to hold that the specific proposal for awarding punishment and/or the nature of punishment proposed to be awarded against the charged employee, is required to be intimated by the school authority to the charged employee at the second stage of the disciplinary proceeding which can only be initiated by the school authority after the approval of the first stage of the proceeding by the Board and when the Board grants permission to the school authority to enter into the second stage of the disciplinary proceeding after considering the entire materials of the first stage of the disciplinary proceeding. 10. SINCE in the instant case the school authority has not yet crossed the first stage of the disciplinary proceeding, as proposal for grant of approval to the first stage of such disciplinary proceeding is still awaiting consideration before the Board, the school authority, in my view, cannot be asked to furnish the specific proposal regarding the punishment to be awarded against the said charged employee, before the first stage of the proceeding is approved by the Board. Such proposal for awarding punishment can only be taken by the school authority at the second stage of such disciplinary proceeding which can only be initiated after approval of the first stage of the proceeding. SINCE the permission to initiate the second stage of the proceeding has not yet been granted by the Board, specific proposal regarding the nature of the punishment to be awarded against the charged employee, cannot be invited from the school authority. The impugned decision of the section 24 committee, thus cannot be retained on record. Accordingly, the impugned decision of the section 24 committee dated 14th July, 2009 contained in the Board's letter dated 26th August, 2009 being annexure P-6 to the writ petition at page 73 is quashed. 11. The impugned decision of the section 24 committee, thus cannot be retained on record. Accordingly, the impugned decision of the section 24 committee dated 14th July, 2009 contained in the Board's letter dated 26th August, 2009 being annexure P-6 to the writ petition at page 73 is quashed. 11. THE said committee is thus directed to consider the paper submitted to it by the school authority and if on such consideration the Board and/or its said committee forms an opinion that there are sufficient grounds for taking disciplinary action against the said charged employee, the Board shall accord first approval to the school's proposal for initiating disciplinary proceeding against him as per law and communicate its decision at the earliest but positively within a fortnight from the date of taking such decision. THE entire exercise in this regard shall be completed by the Board by 30th June, 2011. Thereafter, if occasion so arises, the school will enter into the second stage of disciplinary proceeding and at that relevant time the punishment which will be proposed against the said employee will be communicated to him. 12. THE writ petition stands allowed. Urgent xerox certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties as expeditiously as possible. Writ petition allowed.