New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday said exoneration or no action taken against other officers involved in an incident cannot be a ground to set aside the order of punishment when charges against a delinquent officer are proved in a departmental enquiry.
The top court observed that role of each individual officer even with respect to the same misconduct is required to be considered in light of their duties of office.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna quashed the Allahabad High Court order which had refused to set aside an order passed by the Uttar Pradesh State Public Service Tribunal.
The tribunal had allowed the plea filed by an employee and had set aside an order passed by the disciplinary authority imposing the penalty on him.
The top court said that doctrine of equality ought not to have been applied in the matter when the enquiry officer and the disciplinary authority had held the charges proved against the delinquent officer.
“Even otherwise, merely because some other officers involved in the incident are exonerated and/or no action is taken against other officers cannot be a ground to set aside the order of punishment when the charges against the individual concerned - delinquent officer are held to be proved in a departmental enquiry,” it said.
“There cannot be any claim of negative equality in such cases. Therefore, both the tribunal as well as the high court have committed a grave error in quashing and setting aside the order of punishment imposed by the disciplinary authority by applying the doctrine of equality,” the bench said.
While setting aside the findings recorded by the tribunal as well as the high court, the bench remanded the matter to the disciplinary authority to conduct a fresh enquiry from the stage it stood vitiated, that is, after issuance of the charge sheet and to proceed further with the enquiry after furnishing all the necessary documents and after following due principles of natural justice.
It said the exercise be completed within a period of six months.
The top court noted that the employee was serving as a junior engineer in Uttar Pradesh and an enquiry was conducted by a departmental task force where it was found that he had committed financial irregularities causing loss to the government.
Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him and others and the enquiry officer held the charges alleged against the respondent as proved and consequently, also held the misconduct proved.
The bench noted that the disciplinary authority had concurred with the findings recorded by the enquiry officer and passed an order of recovery of government loss of Rs 22.48 lakh as per the rules from the salary, temporarily stopping two salary increments and remarks given for the year 2017-2018.
The employee filed a representation against the order before the state government, which was rejected.
He then approached the tribunal challenging the order of punishment imposed by the disciplinary authority.
The tribunal had quashed the punishment mainly on the ground of doctrine of equality and also that enquiry conducted was in breach of principles of natural justice in as much as relevant documents mentioned in the charge sheet were not supplied to the delinquent officer.
The state had moved the high court, which refused to interfere with the order passed by the tribunal.
The top court noted in its verdict that the enquiry officer had held the officer guilty of the misconduct alleged and the charges levelled against him of causing monetary loss to the extent of Rs 22.48 lakh and other charges were held to be proved.
It said that the disciplinary authority had imposed the punishment after giving him opportunity to meet the findings recorded by the enquiry officer.
The bench noted the tribunal had set aside the order of punishment imposed by the disciplinary authority by mainly applying the doctrine of equality and by observing that as other officers involved in the incident were exonerated or no action was taken against them, therefore, no action was warranted against the respondent either.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)