Courts Cannot Reinstate Employee Merely Because Departmental Enquiry Was Not Property Conducted – Supreme Court

The Bench also held that in such a case the matter has to be remanded back to the Enquiry Officer / Disciplinary Authority to proceed further with the enquiry from the stage of violation of principles of natural justice is noticed and the enquiry has to be proceeded further after furnishing the necessary documents mentioned in the charge sheet.

The Court also held that merely because some other officers involved in the incident are exonerated and/or no action is taken against other officers cannot be a ground to set aside the order of punishment when the charges against the individual concerned - delinquent officer are held to be proved in a departmental enquiry.

Senior Advocate Mr V.K. Shukla appeared for the State while Advocate Mr Utkarsh Srivastava appeared for the Respondent before the Apex Court.

An appeal was preferred by the State of UP assailing the judgment of the Allahabad High Court which had refused to set aside the order of U.P. State Public Service Tribunal whereby the claim petition of the respondent employee came to be allowed and the order passed by the Disciplinary Authority imposing the penalty/punishment came to be set aside.

In this case, the Respondent was working as Junior Engineer and an enquiry was conducted against him. It was alleged that the Respondent had committed financial irregularities causing loss to the Government. The Disciplinary Authority had passed an order of recovery of Government loss of Rs. 22,48,964.42/- as per the rules from the salary, temporarily stopping two salary increments.

When the Respondent challenged the order of punishment before the Tribunal, the latter quashed the punishment mainly on the ground of Doctrine of Equality and also on the ground that the enquiry conducted was in breach of principles of natural justice as the relevant documents mentioned in the charge sheet were not supplied to the Respondent – Delinquent Officer. This was upheld by the High Court.

The Apex Court noted that so far as the quashing and setting aside the order of punishment imposed by the Disciplinary Authority applying the Doctrine of Equality on the ground that other officers involved in the incident have been exonerated and/or no action has been taken against them, was concerned, the order of punishment could not have been set aside by the Tribunal and the High Court.

The Bench further noted, "The Doctrine of Equality ought not to have been applied when the Enquiry Officer and the Disciplinary Authority held the charges proved against the delinquent officer. The role of the each individual officer even with respect to the same misconduct is required to be considered in light of their duties of office."

"Even otherwise, merely because some other officers involved in the incident are exonerated and/or no action is taken against other officers cannot be a ground to set aside the order of punishment when the charges against the individual concerned - delinquent officer are held to be proved in a departmental enquiry. There cannot be any claim of negative equality in such cases" the Court added.

The Court held that both the High Court and Tribunal committed a grave error in quashing and setting aside the order of punishment imposed by the Disciplinary Authority by applying the Doctrine of Equality.

The Bench further noted that the Tribunal also observed that the enquiry proceedings were against the principles of natural justice in as much as the documents mentioned in the charge sheet were not at all supplied to the delinquent officer, in this context, the Court held –

"As per the settled proposition of law, in a case where it is found that the enquiry is not conducted properly and/or the same is in violation of the principles of natural justice, in that case, the Court cannot reinstate the employee as such and the matter is to be remanded to the Enquiry Officer/Disciplinary Authority to proceed further with the enquiry from the stage of violation of principles of natural justice is noticed and the enquiry has to be proceeded further after furnishing the necessary documents mentioned in the charge sheet, which are alleged to have not been given to the delinquent officer in the instant case."

In the light of these observations, the Court allowed the appeals and set aside and quashed the impugned order of the High Court quashing and setting aside the order of punishment imposed by the Disciplinary Authority by applying the Doctrine of Equality.

The Court held that since the enquiry is found to be vitiated and is found to be in violation of the principles of natural justice in as much as it is alleged that the relevant documents mentioned in the charge sheet were not supplied to the delinquent officer, the matter was remanded back to the Disciplinary Authority to conduct a fresh inquiry from the stage it stood vitiated.