NDLI: Union of India Thr. Secretary & Ors. Vs. Udai Bhan Singh

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Postal Assistant Charge of misconduct dismissal from service Reinstatement Service Law
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (13 of 1985)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Service Law: Reinstatement – Respondent functioning as Postal Assistant – Charge of misconduct – Authorising payments of commission under the NSC Scheme to agents who were found to be fake – Charges were essentially based on the failure to verify the bills which had been submitted by so-called NSC agents and the failure to make entries of payment in the ledger – Receipts were found to be prepared in the names of fake agents as a result of which payment of NSC commission in the amount of Rs.6.65 lakhs was wrongfully made – Inquiry officer found that charges were proved/partially proved against respondent – Disciplinary Authority awarded penalty of reduction of pay of five years – Appellate Authority ordered dismissal from service – However, Tribunal set aside both the orders and restored the proceedings to the Disciplinary Authority with liberty to issue notice to show cause to respondent and after allowing him opportunity of submitting representation to arrive at final decision – After order of Tribunal, a notice to show cause was issued to respondent – Disciplinary Authority found that charges were proved against the respondent which warranted dismissal from service – The said findings were upheld by Appellate Authority – Tribunal dismissed OA by respondent – However, High Court directed reinstatement of respondent on the ground of violation of principle of natural justice and vitiation of inquiry by delay following an earlier order of remand of Tribunal – High Court held that there was a failure on the part of the inquiry officer to provide documents to the respondent during the course of disciplinary inquiry and that notice was issued by Disciplinary Authority nearly eight years following the first order of Tribunal – Appeal by employer-UOI – Held: Tribunal, while dealing with the submission, came to the conclusion that the respondent was attempting to take undue advantage of the non availability of cash receipts but the payment could be verified from other records and documents which were maintained in the Head Post Office – High Court merely observed that the respondent was not provided the documents which were relied upon – High Court did not consider which documents were not supplied, the relevance of those documents to the charge of misconduct and the prejudice, if any, that resulted to the respondent by the non availability of the relevant documents – Even in the pleadings of the respondent, the plea that there was a failure to supply documents was vague and there was no reference to which specific document ought to have been made available – Tribunal restored the proceedings back to the Disciplinary Authority to enable the appellants to issue a fresh notice to show cause to the respondent and to arrive at a conclusion on the nature of the misconduct, if any, after furnishing an opportunity to the respondent of making a representation – Neither was the inquiry required to be held afresh nor was fresh evidence to be recorded – After the order of the Tribunal, a notice to show cause was issued to the respondent after eight years – But respondent had been reinstated following the order of the Tribunal setting aside the disciplinary action, pending the conclusion of the process by the Disciplinary Authority – Therefore, the delay on the part of the Disciplinary Authority in issuing a show cause notice in the first instance and in passing a final order thereafter was not a matter of any prejudice to the respondent – For the said reasons, the High Court was in error in interfering with the exercise of the disciplinary jurisdiction of the appellants – The misconduct was proved – The penalty imposed cannot be held to be disproportionate or arbitrary – High Court erred in setting aside the punishment and ordering reinstatement with back wages and continuity of service.
Judge	Hon'ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud
Neutral Citation	2019 INSC 1271
Petitioner	Union Of India Thr. Secretary & Ors.
Respondent	Udai Bhan Singh
SCR	[2019] 17 S.C.R. 527
Judgement Date	2019-11-21
Case Number	9303

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
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