Civil court jurisdiction in service disputes remains open unless expressly excluded; departmental remedies alone do not bar a civil suit.

Service rules do not oust civil court jurisdiction unless exclusion is express or clearly implied, so the existence of departmental remedies under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965 does not by itself bar a civil suit. The High Court erred in treating those remedies as a complete jurisdictional bar and in non-suiting the appellant without examining the merits of the service dispute. The order was set aside and the matter remitted for fresh adjudication on merits, with no opinion expressed on the validity of the dismissal order.

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Issues: Whether the jurisdiction of the civil court to entertain a service dispute was ousted by the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, and whether the High Court was justified in non-suiting the appellant on that ground.

Analysis: The service rules did not expressly or by necessary implication bar the jurisdiction of the civil court. A litigant may in appropriate cases be required to pursue departmental remedies first, but that does not mean that civil jurisdiction stands excluded altogether. The High Court erred in treating the availability of remedies under the service rules as a complete bar to a civil suit and in deciding the matter on a jurisdictional short-cut instead of examining the merits of the second appeal and cross-objections.

Conclusion: The civil court's jurisdiction was not ousted, and the appellant could not be non-suited on that ground. The order of the High Court was set aside and the matter was remitted for decision on merits.

Final Conclusion: The dispute was restored to the High Court for fresh adjudication on the merits, with no opinion expressed on the substantive validity of the dismissal order.

Ratio Decidendi: Service rules do not oust civil court jurisdiction unless exclusion is express or clearly implied; a court cannot decline to decide a service dispute merely because departmental remedies exist.

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