9911796707
TMI Blog1998 (11) TMI 668X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dum of charges. THE gist of it is as under: 1. That he did not report for duty at the office of the IGP (OPS), CRPF, J and K, Srinagar on his transfer/attachment and did not proceed to his new posting from present office as ASI (M) in GC, CRPF, Guwahati and thereby committed an act of disobedience of the orders of his superiors in the discharge of his duties in his capacity as a member of the force under Section 11(1) of CRPF Act, 1949; 2. That he committed an act of neglect of duty in his capacity as a member of the force inasmuch as he remained absent from duty from 1/06/199 1/09/1991 without proper permission from the competent authority and without sufficient cause, reason or ground thereby violated Section 11(1) of CRPF Act, 1949 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m order on the basis that Rule 15 of the Disciplinary Rules enables the authority to remit the matter to the Enquiry Officer for further enquiry and that the power has been exercised by the authority under Rule 15 and mere use of expression de novo will not change the tenor of the order. A writ appeal was perferred against the said order and the Division Bench of the High Court granted initially an interim order staying further proceedings in the enquiry and thereafter by an order made on 15/12/1997 allowed the appeal by taking the view that in an appeal arising out of an order of punishment made by the Disciplinary Authority accepting or rejecting the conclusion reached by the enquiry authority, the appellate authority could direct a fre ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, relied upon the decision of this Court in, K. R. Deb v. Collector of Central Excise, Shillong, (1971) 2 SCC 102 : (AIR 1971 SC 1447), wherein, while interpreting Rule 15 of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1957, it was held that the Disciplinary Authority has no power to set aside an earlier enquiry and order a fresh enquiry. He submitted that this decision makes it clear that it is not open to the Disciplinary Authority to order to conduct a fresh enquiry in this matter. Therefore, he urged that the view taken by the High Court is justified. In order to satisfy ourselves of the correctness of the contentions raised on behalf of the parties, we called for the original record of the enquiry and of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... face of it, really provides for one inquiry but it may be possible if in a particular case there has been no proper enquiry because some serious defect has crept into the inquiry or some important witnesses were not available at the time of the inquiry or were not examined for some other reason, the Disciplinary Authority may ask the Inquiry Officer to record further evidence. But there is no provision in Rule 15 for completely setting aside previous inquiries on the ground that the report of the Inquiring Officer or Officers does not appeal to the Disciplinary Authority. The Disciplinary Authority has enough powers to reconsider the evidence itself and come to its own conclusion under Rule 9. (Emphasis supplied). A careful reading of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y Officer before passing an order. It does not stand the logic that in a given case the appellate authority could order a fresh enquiry and not the Disciplinary Authority at whose instance the enquiry began and which is not satisfied with the enquiry held for some vital defects in the procedure adopted. Therefore the order made by the High Court cannot be sustained. The same stands set aside and we allow the appeal and dismiss the writ petition filed by the respondent. ( 5. ) CONSIDERING the fact that this matter has been pending before the authorities for a long time, we direct the appellant to complete the enquiry as expeditiously as possible but within three months from today and take an appropriate decision. The appeal is allowed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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