IMPORTANT POINTS
1. Unless and until it is shown that prejudice has been caused it cannot be said that the inquiry proceeding is vitiated or that there is any violation of principles of natural justice.
2. The role of the Court in the matter of departmental proceedings is very limited and the Court cannot substitute its own views or findings by replacing the findings arrived at by the authority on detailed appreciation of the evidence on record.

JUDGMENT

Dr. Mukundakam Sharma, J. —

1. By this common judgment and order we propose to dispose of all the four appeals which are interconnected as the issues and the facts arising for our consideration are similar. They were heard together and, therefore, a common judgment and order is also passed.

2. These appeals are filed by the appellants being aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 10.12.2003 passed by the Gauhati High Court whereby the Division Bench of the High Court dismissed the writ appeals of the appellants and thereby confirmed the judgment and order dated 16.8.02 passed by the learned single Judge dismissing all the writ petitions filed by the appellants holding that the appellants were given all reasonable opportunity to defend themselves and, therefore, there was no merit in those writ petitions.

3. The brief facts leading to the filing of the present appeals are that on 13th March, 1999 the appellants and few others of the Central Reserve Police Force [for short “CRPF”] while serving under 60 Battalion stationed at Haflong were detailed to go in two vehicles, one as escort and other a water tanker for bringing water from Retezole Jatinga water point. Sanjay Kumar Singh, the driver, Jai Shankar Sharma and K.N. Paswan were in the water tanker and they were provided with an escort vehicle which was driven by Jawahar Lal and the other occupants in the said escort vehicle were Head Constable Emmanuel Herenz; L. Nk. Harendra Chowdhury; L. Nk. Jaswant Singh; Constable U.K.S. Gurung and Constable P.S. Madhvi. While the water tanker with the escort party following was on its way to the said water point, the militants ambushed the vehicles and started firing indiscriminately as a result of which five CRPF personnel in the escort vehicle were killed, namely, Driver Jawahar Lal; L. Nk. Harendra Chowdhury; L. Nk. Jaswant Singh; Constable U.K.S. Gurung and Constable P.S. Madhvi. The appellants were the four who survived the ambush.

4. Head Constable Emmanuel Herenz is the only survivor of the escort vehicle who jumped out of the escort vehicle when the ambush took place leaving behind the wireless set given to him in the truck itself. It has also come on record that when the militants opened fire L. Nk. Jai Shankar Sharma sitting in the water tanker thought that there was a tyre burst. In order to look at it he got out of the water tanker when he came to realize that it is actually an attack by the militants. In the meantime, the driver Sanjay Kumar Singh stopped for a while and thereafter drove away the tanker but L. Nk. Jai Shankar Sharma could not despite his best efforts re-board the vehicle. It has also come in evidence that the driver of the tanker took the vehicle to the Haringajab Police Station, which was 15 kilometers away from the scene of occurrence, and from there he had allegedly informed his Unit about the incident.

5. When search parties reached the spot they found Head Constable Emmanuel Herenz hiding whereas L/Nk Jai Shankar Sharma who had also got down and had run away from the place of occurrence was found out from his hiding place which was under a gorge. On the same day the Deputy Commandant, 60 Battalion lodged a First Information Report with the officer-in-charge, Haflong Police Station and on 16.03.1999 all the appellants were suspended from service pending departmental proceedings against them. The appellants were thereafter issued a chargesheet with the allegations that while the appellants were deputed to function as escort party to the water tanker, they committed disobedience of orders, committed gross misconduct and displayed cowardice in execution of their duties and in their capacity as members of CRPF. The two articles of charges framed against them read as follows: -

“Article-I:-

“.... Out of the two vehicles (Regn. No. DIG 3390 water truck (3/5 ton) and Regn. No. DL-IG 7976 escort vehicle) deputed with escort party was attacked by the militants by laying ambush. The above personnel ins