NDLI: Office of The Odisha Lokayukta Vs. Dr. Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi and Others

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Odisha Lokayukta Act 2014 25 28 s.20(1)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2018 (12 of 2018)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014 – s. 20(1), 25, 28 – Order passed by the appellant, in exercise of power conferred u/s.20(1), directing to conduct preliminary inquiry against respondent no.1 – Set aside by High Court –Held: High Court passed the impugned order setting aside the order of the appellant without affording it an opportunity of hearing and thus, is in violation of the principles of natural justice – Even on merits, High Court completely overlooked s. 20(1) that empowers the Lokayukta, on receipt of a complaint, in its discretion if intended to proceed and to hold any inquiry, can conduct preliminary inquiry against a public servant by its wing or any other agency – So far as the term ‘any agency’ is concerned, it clearly manifests from s. 25 which entrusts the power of superintendence to the Lokayukta to exercise in such a manner so as to require any agency, including the State Vigilance and Crime Branch – Also, u/s.28 for the purpose of conducting any preliminary inquiry or investigation, it is open for the Lokayukta to utilize the services of any officer or organization or investigation agency of the Government – Thus, in the present case, if the appellant conducted a preliminary inquiry through an agency of the Government of which reference has been made u/s.28 through the Directorate of Vigilance, Cuttack, there is no legal infirmity committed by the appellant – Decision-making process in conducting the preliminary inquiry was within the scope and ambit of s. 20(1) – Judgment of High Court and the review order are set aside.Administrative Law – Rule against Bias – Held: Rule against bias ensures a fair procedure by excluding decision makers who are tainted by bias – Under the rule, actual bias is disqualifying even though it is prohibitively difficult to establish – Justice must not only be done but must also appear to be done – In the present case, the Officer who submitted the complaint was simply an informant and not the person interested, at the same time, preliminary enquiry was conducted by a different officer not connected with author of the complaint – Thus, the plea of bias is ill-founded – Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ajay Rastogi
Neutral Citation	2023 INSC 154
Petitioner	Office Of The Odisha Lokayukta
Respondent	Dr. Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi And Others
SCR	[2023] 2 S.C.R. 560
Judgement Date	2023-02-23
Case Number	1384

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
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7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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