TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1957 (9) TMI 41
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....t. Information was given to Sri Tawakley an assistant in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Complaints Branch), that Sri Bhan was offering to give bribe for getting an order in his favour. He immediately reported the matter to the Special Police Establishment, and they decided to lay a trap for him. Sri Bhan, however, was willing to pay the bribe only after an order in his favour had been made and communicated, but he offered that he would get the respondent to stand as surety for payment by him. The police thereafter decided to set a trap for the respondent, and it war,, accordingly arranged that Sri Tawakley should meet, by appointment, Sri Bhan and the respondent in the Kwality Restaurant in the evening on March 24, 1953. The meeting took place as arranged, and three members of the Special Police Establishment were present there incognito. Then, there was a talk between Sri Tawakley, Sri Bhan and the respondent, and it is the case of the appellant that during that talk, an assurance was given by the respondent to Sri Tawakley that the amount would be paid by Sri Bhan. After the conversation was over, when the respondent was about to depart, one of the officers, the Superi....
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....nding of guilt was not proper, and that no action should be taken against him. He also complained in this explanation that the enquiry was vitiated by the fact that he had not been permitted to cross-examine. the witnesses, who gave evidence against him. The papers were then submitted to the Union Public Service Commission in accordance with Art. 320, and it sent its report on September 6, 1954, that the charges were made out, that there was no substance in the complaint of the respondent that he was not allowed to cross-examine the witnesses, and that he should be dismissed. The President. accepting the finding of the Enquiring Officer and the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission, made an order on September 16, 1954, that. the respondent should be dismissed from Government service. The respondent then filed the application out of which the present appeal arises, in the High Court of Punjab for an appropriate writ to quash the order of dismissal dated September 16, 1954, for the reason that there was no proper enquiry. As many as seven grounds were set forth in support of the Petition, and of these, the learned Judges held that three had been established. They h....
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.... will be a sound exercise of discretion to refuse to interfere in a petition under Art. 226, unless there are good grounds therefor. None such appears in the present case. On the other hand, the point for determination in this petition whether the respondent was denied a reasonable opportunity to present his case, turns mainly on the question whether he was prevented from crossexamining the witnesses, who gave evidence in support of the charge. That is a question on which there is a serious dispute, which cannot be satisfactorily decided without taking evidence. It is not the practice of Courts to decide questions of that character in a writ petition, and it would have been a proper exercise of discretion in the present case if the learned Judges had referred the respondent to a suit. In this appeal, we should have ourselves adopted that course, and passed the order which the learned Judges should have passed. But we feel pressed by the fact that the order dismissing the respondent having been made on September 16, 1954, an action to set it aside would now be timebarred. As the High Court has gone into the matter on the merits, we propose to dispose of this appeal on a consideratio....
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....ndent, he asked for permission to crossexamine witnesses, and that was refused, it is surprising that he should not have put the complaint in writing on the subsequent dates on which the enquiry was continued. To one of the witnesses, Sri. P. Govindan Nair, he did actually put a question in cross-examination, and it is difficult to reconcile this with his statement that permission had been refused to cross-examine the previous witnesses. A reading of the deposition of the witnesses shows that the Enquiring Officer himself had put searching questions, and elicited all relevant facts. It is not suggested that there was any specific matter in respect of which cross-examination could have been but was not directed. We think it likely that the respondent did not cross-examine the witnesses because there was nothing left for him to cross-examine. The learned Judges gave two reasons for accepting -the statement of the respondent in preference to that of Mr. Byrne. One is that there was no record made in the depositions of the witnesses that there was no cross-examination. But what follows from this? That, in fact, there was no cross-examination, which is a fact; not that the request of th....
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....pportunity of adducing all relevant evidence on which he relies, that the evidence of the opponent should be taken in his presence, and that he should be given the opportunity of cross-examining the witnesses examined by that party, and that no materials should be relied on against him without his being given an opportunity of explaining them. If these rules are satisfied, the enquiry is not open to attack on the ground that the procedure laid down in the Evidence Act for taking evidence was not strictly followed. Vide the recent decision of this Court in New Prakash Transport Co. v. New Suwarna Transport Co. ([1957] S.C.R. 98 ), where this question is discussed. We have examined the record in the light of the above principles, and find that there has been no violation of the principles of natural justice. The witnesses have been,examined at great length, and have spoken to all relevant facts bearing on the question, and it is not suggested that there is any other matter, on which they could have spoken. We do not accept the version of the respondent that he was not allowed to put any questions to the witnesses. 'Indeed, the evidence of Sri Jai Narayan at p. 188 of the Paper Book s....