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Issues: (i) Whether the principle governing preventive detention, that an order fails if one of several grounds is non-existent or irrelevant, applies to an order of compulsory retirement under the service rules. (ii) Whether, after an officer had been cleared for continuance on an earlier review endorsed by the State Government, a second Review Committee could validly reassess the same materials and recommend compulsory retirement in the absence of exceptional circumstances.
Issue (i): Whether the principle governing preventive detention, that an order fails if one of several grounds is non-existent or irrelevant, applies to an order of compulsory retirement under the service rules.
Analysis: Compulsory retirement under Rule 16(3) is not punitive and does not cast stigma on the officer. It is a service-based power exercised in public interest, distinct from preventive detention and distinct even from disciplinary punishment. The Court held that the subjective-test approach applicable to preventive detention cannot be imported into such service matters. Even where an order rests on several considerations, it is not invalid merely because one consideration later proves to be unsound, so long as the order is otherwise supportable and is not arbitrary or mala fide.
Conclusion: The preventive detention principle does not apply, and the impugned order was not invalid on that ground.
Issue (ii): Whether, after an officer had been cleared for continuance on an earlier review endorsed by the State Government, a second Review Committee could validly reassess the same materials and recommend compulsory retirement in the absence of exceptional circumstances.
Analysis: The instructions issued to guide Rule 16(3) require fair procedure and structured review, and they do not permit repeated reassessment on the same material after an officer has already been cleared, unless fresh facts or exceptional circumstances emerge. The earlier review had recommended continuance and that view had been accepted by the State Government. The second review proceeded on the same record, without any demonstrated exceptional circumstance, and the order of retirement was founded on that second recommendation. That course was inconsistent with the governing procedure and could not sustain the order.
Conclusion: The second Review Committee could not validly reopen the matter on the same materials, and the retirement order was unsustainable.
Final Conclusion: The order of compulsory retirement was set aside in effect because it was founded on an impermissible second review rather than on a permissible fresh or exceptional basis, and the appeals therefore failed.
Ratio Decidendi: An order of compulsory retirement under service rules is not to be tested by preventive detention principles; it is valid only if exercised bona fide, fairly, and in accordance with the governing procedure, and repeated review on the same material is impermissible unless exceptional circumstances justify reopening the case.
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