Judgment

HEGDE, J.: The appellant was a probationary Naib Tehsildar. He had been appointed temporarily. While he was working at Bilaigarh in 1961, the commissioner of Raipur Division directed an enquiry against him on as many as 13 charges. By his order dated August 3, 1961, the Commissioner placed him under suspension pending enquiry. Sometime later, the State Government taking the view that the enquiry ordered by the Commissioner may not be legal, revoked his orders viz., the order directing a departmental enquiry against the appellant as well as the order placing him under suspension. But on the same day, it ordered a departmental enquiry against him and at the same time it placed him under suspension pending that enquiry. In this connection a show cause notice was issued to the appellant on August 1, 1964. But even before that show cause notice was issued, on June 6, 1964, the appellant gave a notice to the Government terminating his services. After the issue of the aforementioned show cause notice, he moved the High Court of Madhya Pradesh to quash the orders passed by the State Government on the ground that as he was no more in the service of the Government, the Government cannot take any departmental action against him.

2. The State Government resisted that application on two grounds viz., (1) the order of the State Government suspending the appellant during the pendency of the departmental enquiry amounted to a suspension of the contract of service and hence the appellant could not have unilaterally terminated his services and (2) the notice given by him on June 6, 1964 was invalid as it did not conform to the rules.

3. The High Court accepted the aforesaid contentions of the State Government and dismissed the writ petition. Hence this appeal by special leave.

4. Mr. Sanghi, learned Counsel for the appellant pressed for our acceptance the two contentions advanced on behalf of the appellant before the High Court. He urged that the view taken by the High Court both as to the effect of the order of suspension made on May 7, 1964 as well as to the validity of the notice issued by the appellant on June 6, 1964 are erroneous in law. According to him the impugned order of suspension merely forbade the appellant from rendering service and it did not amount to a suspension of the contract of service. As regards the notice issued by the appellant he urged that it was in accordance with rule 12 of the Madhya Pradesh Government Servants (Temporary and Quasi-Permanent Service) Rules, (1960) (in short Rules ).

5. The parties are agreed that the appellant was a temporary public servant at the relevant time. His service was neither made permanent nor quasi-permanent. It is also admitted that the conditions of his service are exclusively governed by the Rules . Therefore to find out the true effect of the order of suspension made on May 7, 1964, we must look to those Rules .

6. Three kinds of suspension are known to law. A public servant may be suspended as a mode of punishment or he may be suspended during the pendency of an enquiry against him if the order appointing him or statutory provisions governing his service provide for such suspensions. Lastly he may merely be forbidden from discharging his duties during the pendency of an enquiry against him which act is also called suspension. The right to suspend as a measure of punishment as well as the right to suspend the contract of service during the pendency of an enquiry are both regulated by the contract of employment or the provisions regulating the conditions of service. But the last category of suspension referred to earlier is the right of the master to forbid his servant from doing the work which he had to do under the terms of the contract of service or the provisions governing his conditions of service at the same time keeping in force the master s obligations under the contract. In other words the master may ask his servant to refrain from rendering his service but he must fu