1987 (11) TMI 380

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....ion against the appellant. Hence this appeal. The appellant was posted as fireman at Moghulsarai in Northern Railway in May, 1964. On 28th May 1964 coal lying at Pusauli Station was fraudulently removed by some person giving out his name as Shambhu Tiwari. A criminal case was registered, but on account of absence of reliable evidence, a final report was submitted. It appears that during the preliminary enquiry held by the Department it was found that Chandrama Tewari, the appellant had removed the coal lying at Pusauli Station posing himself as Shambhu Tiwari, a coal contractor. On completion of the preliminary enquiry a charge sheet was issued to the appellant on 6.2.1967. The appellant filed reply to the charges denying the same. An Enquiry Officer was appointed before whom evidence was recorded and the appellant was afforded full opportunity of cross-examining the witnesses. The Enquiry Officer submitted his report holding the appellant guilty of charges framed against him. The punishing authority accepted the enquiry report and issued orders on 27.6.1969 dismissing the appellant from the service. The appellant filed a civil suit in the Trial Court for a declaration that the ....

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....fore he is awarded major punishment of dismissal. It further contemplates that disciplinary enquiry must be held in accordance with the Rules in a just and fair manner. The procedure at the enquiry must be consistent with the principles of natural justice. Principles of natural justice require that the copy of the document if any relied upon against the party charged should be given to him and he should be afforded opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses and to produce his own witnesses in his defence. If findings are recorded against the government servant placing reliance on a document which may not have been disclosed to him or the copy whereof may not have been supplied to him during the enquiry when demanded would contravene principles of natural justice rendering the enquiry, and the consequential order of punishment illegal and void. These principles are well settled by a catena of decisions of this Court. We need not refer to them. However, it is not necessary that each and every document must be supplied to the delinquent government servant facing the charges instead only material and relevant documents are necessary to be supplied to him. If a document even though ment....

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....valuable right and if effective exercise of that right is prevented by the enquiry officer by not giving to officer relevant document to which he is entitled, the enquiry cannot be said to have been held in accordance with the principles of natural justice. In Triloki Nath v. Union of India, it was held that if a public servant facing enquiry was not supplied copies of documents it would amount to denial of reasonable opportunity. In that case the statement of witnesses recorded during the investigation of the criminal case registered against the delinquent officer prior to the departmental proceedings had not been supplied to him, as a result of which the delinquent officer was prejudiced in his defence at the enquiry. In State of Assam and Anr. v. Mahendra Kumar Das & ors.J dismissal of a police sub-inspector in pursuance of a disciplinary enquiry held against him had been set aside by the High Court on the ground that the enquiry officer had during the course of the enquiry consulted the Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Branch and had taken into consideration certain material gathered from the AntiCorruption Branch, without making the said material available to the s....

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.... the officer concerned was not supplied the copies of statements made by the witnesses at a pre-enquiry stage and also the copies of the documents on which reliance was placed in support of the charges, in spite of specific request being made by the officer. The Court held that the order of dismissal was violative of Article 311 (2) in as much as the officer had been denied reasonable opportunity of defending himself. While setting aside the order of dismissal the Court observed that whether or not refusal to supply copies of documents or statements has resulted in prejudice to an officer facing the departmental enquiry depends on the facts of each case. After making this observation the Court examined the circumstances of that case and concluded that since 38 witnesses were examined against the officer and a large number of documents were relied upon against him and the disciplinary authority should have supplied the copies of the statement of witnesses recorded during the preliminary enquiry as we as the copies of the documents. Wherein agreement with the view taken in this decision It is now well settled that if copies of relevant and material documents including the statement o....