SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
E.S. VENKATARAMIAH AND K.N. SINGH, JJ.
Brij Nandan Kansal, Appellant
Versus
State of U.P. and another, Respondents.
Civil Appeal No. 1068 of 1976,
D/- 26-2-1988.
Advocates Appeared
Mr. R. K.Garg, Sr.Advocate; Mr. V. J. Francis and Mr. N. M. Popli, with him, for Appellant, Mr. Anil Dev Singh, Sr. Advocate and Mrs. S. Dixit, Advocate with him for Respondents.
Constitution of India – Article 226 – Appeal - Dismissing the appellant writ petition made under Art 226 of the Constitution challenging the order of the State Government dismissing the appellant from the U.P. Civil Service (Executive Branch) – Appellant was in the service of the State of Uttar Pradesh as a member of the U.P. Civil Service (Executive Branch) – He was posted as Regional Transport Magistrate at Bareilly between number of charges were framed against the appellant and the State Government referred the matter to the U.P. Administrative Tribunal constituted under the U. P. Disciplinary Proceedings (Administrative Tribunal) Rules 1947 for enquiry into those charges –Held, Tribunal was not discharging the functions of a Court but on the other hand it was acting as the inquiring authority and it had full power to reappraise the evidence and record its findings and in that process it was open to it to hold that the evidence on record was not sufficient to sustain the charges against the appellant – Whole approach of the Legal Remembrancer was misconceived as a result of which he opined that the findings recorded by the Tribunal in appellants favour could be ignored – Court are of opinion that the State Government could not ignore the findings of the Tribunal applying the principles of judicial review of administrative actions by a Court of law – State Government committed serious error of law in ignoring the findings of the Tribunal without giving an opportunity to the appellant to show cause against the proposed view of the Government and passing the impugned order on the basis of the report of the Legal Remembrancer – Tribunals findings clearly indicated that there was no evidence to sustain the charges against the appellant and in that view the impugned order of dismissal could not legally be passed against the appellant – Order accordingly.
Judgment
SINGH, J.:- This appeal is directed against the judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Allahabad dated August 7, 1974 allowing the respondents Letters Patent appeal and setting aside the order of the learned single Judge and dismissing the appellants writ petition made under Art. 226 of the Constitution challenging the order of the State Government dated April 24, 1972 dismissing the appellant from the U.P. Civil Service (Executive Branch).
2. The appellant was in the service of the State of Uttar Pradesh as a member of the U.P. Civil Service (Executive Branch). He was posted as Regional Transport Magistrate at Bareilly between June, 1962 to October, 1964. A number of charges were framed against the appellant and the State Government referred the matter to the U.P. Administrative Tribunal constituted under the U. P. Disciplinary Proceedings (Administrative Tribunal) Rules 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules) for enquiry into those charges. The Tribunal after recording evidence of the parties submitted its findings to the State Government on 27th May, 1970. Out of six charges framed against the appellant the Tribunal recorded the finding that the first charge was not proved but it recorded findings against the appellant in respect of the remaining five charges. The Governor issued show case notice to the appellant on July 29, 1970 calling upon him to show cause as to why he should not be dismissed from service. The notice was accompanied with a copy of the findings of the Tribunal. The appellant submitted a detailed reply making comments on the findings recorded by the Tribunal on each of the charges. The appellant submitted that there was no evidence to support the charges and the findings recorded by the Tribunal were not sustainable. On receipt of the appellants reply to the show cause notice the Governor referred the same to the Tribunal in accordance with R. 10(2) of the Rules. The Tribunal considered the appellants reply to the show cause notice and his comments on the findings recorded by it earlier on the charges and thereupon it submitted a detailed findings to the Governor on 7-7-1971. In that report the Tribunal on a detailed analysis of the evidence recorded the finding that there was no convincing evidence to uphold the charges framed against the appellant. On receipt of the report of the Tribunal the State Government appears to have referred the matter to the Legal Remembrancer for his opinion. The Legal Remembrancer disagreed with the findings recorded by the Tribunal by his report dated July 7, 1971 and he opined that there was sufficient evidence on record to uphold the charges 2 to 5 against the appellant. In view of the opinion submitted by the Legal Remembrancer the Governor disregarded the findings recorded by the Tribunal and issued the impugned order dated April 24, 1972 dismissing the appellant from service.
3. The appellant preferred a writ petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution before the High Court at Allahabad challenging the order of dismissal on a number of grounds. C.S.P. Singh J. allowed the writ petition by his order dated January 10, 1974 and quashed the order of dismissal. The Respondent-State of Uttar Pradesh preferred letters patent appeal before the Division Bench against the judgment of the learned single Judge. The Division Bench by its order dated August 7, 1984 allowed the appeal, set aside the order of the learned single Judge holding that the appellant had been given reasonable opportunity of defence and there was ample evidence to sustain the charges and the order of dismissal did not suffer from any constitutional infirmity. Hence this appeal.
4. The State Government had framed six charges against the appellant, and referred the same to the Administrative Tribunal for enquiry. The Tribunal recorded findings that charge No. 1 was not proved, while remaining charges two to six stood proved against the appellant. The State Government accepted the tribunals f
SupremeToday
Login now and unlock free premium legal research
Login to SupremeToday AI and access free legal analysis, AI highlights, and smart tools.
Login
now!
India’s Legal research and Law Firm App, Download now!
Copyright © 2023 Vikas Info Solution Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved.