TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1987 (4) TMI 482
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....inafter referred to as 'the Rules'. After such acceptance, the adverse remarks were communicated to Shri Wadhwa by the Home Secretary by his letter dated May 4, 1982, about two years three months after the close of the relevant period of March 31, 1980. The respondent did not make any representation against the adverse remarks to the reviewing authority under the Rules. Instead, he chose to file a writ petition before the Punjab & Haryana High Court challenging the authority of the Home Secretary to write a confidential report assessing the performances, character, conduct and qualities of the respondent as the Inspector General of Police and prayed for the quashing of such report or adverse remarks. A learned Single Judge of the High Court took the view that as the Home Secretary was specifically empowered by the State Government as the reporting authority under Rule 2(e) of the Rules, he had the authority to write the report or to make adverse remarks against the performances of the Inspector General of Police, Haryana. In that view of the matter, the learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition. Being aggrieved by the judgment of the learned Single Judge, the respondent f....
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....f by the Government. The expression 'immediately superior' obviously indicates that the reporting authority should be the immediate superior officer in the same Service to which the member of the Service belongs. The position is the same as in the cases of 'reviewing authority' and 'accepting authority'. So, under the first part of clause (e), the reporting authority of the respondent could be a person who is immediately superior to him in the Police Service. At this stage, it is necessary to refer to sections 3 and 4 of the Police Act, 1861. Sections 3 and 4 are as follows:- "Section 3. The superintendence of the police throughout a general police-district shall vest in and shall be exercised by the State Government to which such district is subordinate; and except as authorized under the provisions of this Act, no person, officer, or Court shall be empowered by the State Government to supersede, or control any police functionary.". "Section 4. The administration of the police throughout a general police-district shall be vested in an officer to be styled the Inspector- General of Police, and in such Deputy Inspectors-General and Assistant Inspectors- General as to the State....
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....y must be a person to whom the member of the Service is answerable for his performances. In other words, the reporting authority should be a person higher in rank than the member of the Service. Indeed, that is apparent from the first part of clause (e). It is true that under the second part of clause (e), there is no indication as to the status and position of the authority who may be specifically empowered by the Government as the reporting authority, but from the point of view of propriety and reasonableness and having regard to the intention behind the rule which is manifest, such an authority must be one superior in rank to the member of the Service concerned. If that be not so, there will be an apparent conflict between the first part and second part of clause (e). We are, therefore of the view that the State Government can specifically empower only such authority as the reporting authority as is superior in rank to the Inspector General of Police. It is, however, submitted by Mr. Nariman, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the State of Haryana, that the Home Secretary is the head of the Police Department under the Business of the Haryana Government (Allocation) Rules,....
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...., the Secretary of each Department of the Secretariat is the head of that Department. Thus, the Secretary of the Home Department is the head of the Home Department being a Department of the Secretariat, but merely because he has to conduct the business, on behalf of the Government, of the Police Department, he does not thereby become the head of the Police Department. Item No. 37 under the General Administration Department in the Schedule relates to Judges of the High Court and officers of the Superior Judicial Service. The Chief Secretary of the Government of Haryana is the head of the General Administration Department by virtue of Rule 4 of the Business Rules. But that does not mean that the Chief Secretary is also the head of the Administration relating to the Judges of the High Court and officers of the Superior Judicial Service. Similarly, Item No. 21 of the General Administration Department relates to Council of Ministers and its Committees. Surely, the Chief Secretary has no authority whatsoever on the Council of Ministers and its Committees. There is, therefore, no substance in the contention made on behalf of the appellant that as Police, Railway Police and P.A.P. have bee....
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....ecretaries to the Government are written and recorded by the Ministerin- Charge of the Departments concerned and not even by the Chief Secretary so that the Minister-in Charge of the Departments concerned are the 'immediate superior' authorities to the Secretaries concerned within the meaning of Rule 2(e) of the Rules. Further, it has been stated that before independence the report on the work and conduct of the Inspector General of Police, Punjab, was being recorded by the Minister-in-Charge of the Department and such a position continued even after the independence till 1974 when the Haryana State Government passed the order dated May 3, 1974 under clause (e) of Rule 2 of the Rules, inter alia, specifically empowering the Home Secretary as the reporting authority for writing out the confidential reports in regard to the Inspector General of Police, Haryana. The statements made in paragraph 14 have not been denied by the State of Haryana in its counter-affidavit filed in the High Court. The Division Bench of the High Court was, therefore, perfectly justified in quashing the confidential report written by the then Home Secretary on the work and conduct of the respondent Shri Wadhwa....