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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, CJI., J.B. Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, JJ.
Union Of India And Others - Appellants
Versus
Dilip Paul - Respondent
Civil Appeal No. 6190 OF 2023
Decided On : 06-11-2023
JUDGMENT :
J.B. PARDIWALA, J.
For the convenience of the exposition, this judgement is divided in the following parts: -
| A. FACTUAL MATRIX |
| A.1 On-Spot/Preliminary Inquiry Report |
| A.2 Frontier Complaints Committee’s Inquiry Report |
| A.3 Central Complaints Committee’s Inquiry Report |
| A.4 Defence of the Respondent |
| A.5 Proceedings before the CAT |
| A.6 Proceedings before the High Court |
| B. IMPUGNED ORDER PASSED BY THE HIGH COURT |
| C. SUBMISSIONS ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLANT |
| D. SUBMISSIONS ON BEHALF OF THE RESPONDENT |
| E. ANALYSIS |
| E.1 Relevant Statutory Scheme and Case Law |
| E.2 Whether the Central Complaints Committee could have looked into the second complaint dated 18.09.2012? i) Principle of “Test of Prejudice” in Service Jurisprudence |
| E.3 Whether the Central Complaints Committee could have put questions to the witnesses in a departmental inquiry? i) “Fact Finding” Authority in Disciplinary Proceedings |
| E.4 Whether the Central Complaints Committee based its findings on conjectures and surmises? Whether the case on hand is one of “no evidence”? i) Principle of “No Evidence” in Service Jurisprudence ii) Standard of Proof in Disciplinary Proceedings |
| F. CONCLUSION |
The Registry is directed to anonymize the name of the complainant in this Judgment, all orders that have been passed as well as in the records which are publicly available.
1. This appeal is at the instance of the Union of India and others being the unsuccessful respondents before the High Court and is directed against the judgement and order dated 15.05.2019 passed by the Gauhati High Court in Writ Petition (C) No. 7876 of 2015 by which the High Court allowed the writ petition filed by the respondent herein (original petitioner) and thereby set aside the order of penalty of withholding of 50% pension for all times to come, imposed upon the respondent herein in connection with the disciplinary proceedings initiated on the allegations of sexual harassment.
2. We are dealing with a litigation relating to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in any form at the work place must be viewed seriously and the harasser should not be allowed to escape from the clutches of law. We say so because the same humiliates and frustrates a victim of sexual harassment, more particularly when the harasser goes unpunished or is let off with a relatively minor penalty. However, at the same time, it should be kept in mind that the charge of this nature is very easy to make and is very difficult to rebut. When a plea is taken of false implication for extraneous reasons, the courts have a duty to make deeper scrutiny of the evidence and decide the acceptability or otherwise of the accusations. Every care should be taken to separate the chaff from the grain. The veracity and genuineness of the complaint should be scrutinised to prevent any misuse of such laudable laws enunciated for the upliftment of the society and for equal rights of people without gender discrimination by anybody under the garb of “sexual harassment”, lest justice rendering system would become a mockery. In such circumstances, we have decided to look into this matter closely and in details.
A. FACTUAL MATRIX
3. The respondent herein was serving as the Area Organizer i.e., the Local Head of Office of the Service Selection Board (for short, “the SSB”), Rangia, State of Assam between September, 2006 to May, 2012. In the very same office, a lady employee was serving as the Field Assistant (Lady) (hereinafter referred to as the “complainant”). She lodged a complaint (hereinafter referred to as the “first complaint”) addressed to the Inspector General (for short, “IG”), Frontier Headquarters, Guwahati with one copy each forwarded to the DG SSB, New Delhi, Dy. IG, SSB, SHQ, Tezpur and the Chairperson of the
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