IMPORTANT POINTS
In departmental proceeding the enquiry should be conducted by following principles of natural justice. Disciplinary Authority should appreciate the evidence and record his reasons in support of his conclusion. Appellate Authority should apply his mind.
In case of defective departmental proceeding High Court normally remands the matter to Disciplinary authority for conducting the proceeding afresh. However, long time lag and other supervening circumstances are relevant considerations for not adopting that course.

JUDGMENT

T.S. Thakur, CJI.

In this appeal by special leave the appellant calls in question the correctness of a judgment and order dated 28th October, 2013 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow bench, whereby Writ Petition No.2867 of 2006 filed by the respondent has been allowed and an order dated 29th July, 2005 passed by the Disciplinary Authority and that dated 5th January, 2006 passed by the Appellate Authority directing removal of the respondent from the service of the appellant-bank quashed. The High Court has as a result directed the appellant bank to provide all service/retiral benefits to the petitioner within ninety days of the order. The challenge mounted by the appellant arises in the following circumstances:

2. The respondent was employed with the appellant-bank and was during the relevant period posted as Officer in-charge at the appellant-bank's Sultanpur branch in District Sultanpur in the State of Uttar Pradesh. He was, by an order dated 10th December, 2004, placed under suspension in contemplation of a disciplinary enquiry which was initiated against him with the service of a charge-sheet dated 10th February, 2005. The respondent pleaded not guilty but the Enquiry Officer concluded the enquiry proceedings rather quickly within a span of just about forty-five days and submitted a report dated 27th May, 2005 holding that the respondent was guilty on all counts except two which were held proved but only partially. The Disciplinary Authority accepted the findings and passed an order imposing upon the respondent the major penalty of removal from service.

3. Aggrieved, the respondent preferred a departmental appeal which was dismissed by the Appellate Authority by its order dated 5th January, 2006. The respondent then questioned the said two orders before the High Court in a writ petition which as noticed earlier has been allowed by the High Court in terms of the order impugned in this appeal.

4. The High Court came to the conclusion that neither the Disciplinary Authority nor the Appellate Authority had applied their mind or recorded reasons in support of their conclusions. Relying upon the decisions of this court in Roop Singh Negi v. Punjab National Bank & Ors. (2009) 2 SCC 570, Kuldeep Singh v. Commissioner of Police & Ors., (1999) 2 SCC 10, Nand Kishore v. State of Bihar (1978) 3 SCC 366, Kailash Nath Gupta v. Enquiry Officer, Allahabad Bank & Ors., (2003) 9 SCC 480, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur v. Nemi Chand Nalwaya, (2011) 4 SCC 584 and Mohd. Yunus Khan v. State of U.P. & Ors., (2010) 10 SCC 539, the High Court held that the order passed by the disciplinary authority and the appellate authority were unsustainable in law. The High Court found that the findings recorded by the Disciplinary Authority and affirmed by the Appellate Authority were perverse and were based on no evidence whatsoever. The High Court observed that the Appellate Authority had not applied its mind independently and simply cut and pasted the findings of the Disciplinary Authority while dismissing the appeal.

5. On behalf of the appellant-bank it was contended before us that the High Court had exceeded its jurisdiction in re-appreciating the evidence and holding the respondent not guilty. It was argued that so long as there was some evidence on which the Disciplinary Authority could rest its findings, sufficiency or insufficiency of such evidence could not be gone into by a Writ Court. Alternatively, it was submitted that even if there was any infirmity in the orders passed by the Disciplinary Authority or the Appellate Authority, on account of absence or insufficiency of the reasons in support of the findings recorded by them, the proper course for the High Court was to remand the matter back to the Appellate Authority or the Disciplinary Authority as the case may be for doing the needful afresh. The High Court could not, on account of absence of reasons or unsatisfactory appraisal of the evidence by them, quash the ord