Judicial review of departmental proceedings

Ordinarily, a court would not interfere with the findings of the Enquiry Officer. He is entitled to draw his own inference and so long as the inference drawn by him is supported by some materials on record, it is well settled that a Court of judicial review would not interfere therewith.

Despite limited jurisdiction, a Civil Court is entitled to interfere in a case where the report of the Enquiry Officer is based on no evidence. In a suit filed by a delinquent employee in a civil Court as also a writ Court, in the event the findings arrived at in the departmental proceedings are questioned, it, should keep in mind the following :

(1) The Enquiry Officer is not permitted to collect any material from outside sources during the conduct of the enquiry.

 (2) In a domestic enquiry fairness in the procedure is a part of the principles of natural justice.

 (3) Exercise of discretionary power involve two elements - (i) Objective and (ii) subjective and existence of the exercise of an objective element is a condition precedent for exercise of the subjective element.

(4) It is not possible to lay down any rigid rules of the principles of natural justice which depends on the facts and circumstances of each case but the concept of fair play in action is the basis.

 (5) The Enquiry Officer is not permitted to travel beyond the charges and any punishment imposed on the basis of a finding which was not the subject-matter of the charges is wholly illegal.

 (6) Suspicion or presumption cannot take the place of proof even in a domestic enquiry. The writ Court is entitled to interfere with the findings of the fact of any tribunal or authority in certain circumstances.

(see, Narinder Mohan Arya v. United India Insurance Co. Ltd. and Ors AIR 2006 SC1448, S.B. Sinha and Dalveer Bhandari, JJ. )