CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 400 of 1960. Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated March 26, 1959, of the Mysore High Court in Writ Petition No. 41 of 1958. H.N. Sanyal, Additional Solicitor General of India, R. Gopalakrishnan and P. D. Menon, for the appellants. K. B. Choudhri, for the respondent. 1962. May 3. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMA AIYAR, J.-This is an appeal by ,special leave against the judgment of the High Court of Mysore in a Writ Petition filed by respondent challenging the validity of an order of dismissal dated july 5, 1966 made by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Belgaum. The respondent entered service in the Police Department as a constable in the District of Bharwar in 1940 and was ’at the material dates a subinspector of Police. On a complaint preferred by one Machwe of Kurdiwadi against him, Mr. Majumdar, Inspector C. I. D. made a preliminary investigation, examined a number of witnesses and recorded their statements, and submitted his report recommending further action. On that the Deputy Superintendent’ of Police, Belgaum, started proceedings against the respondent, framed six charges against him, and called for his explanation. The respondent denied the charges and then a regular inquiry was held on November 4, 1954. Clause (8) of s. 545 of the Bombay Police Manual which lays down the procedure to be followed in such inquiries is as follows:-
"The officer conducting the inquiry should
then recall all necessary witnesses in support
of the charge and, in the defaulter’s
presence, read out any statements they may
have made in the preliminary inquiry and
record, if necessary any further statements
they may have to make. He should then give
the defaulter an opportunity of cross-
examining each witness after his statement in
support of the charge is completed, any such
cross-examination being recorded below the
statement of the witness concerned. In accordance with this provision the Deputy Superintendent recalled the witnesses who had been examined by Mr. Majumdar during the preliminary investigation, brought on record the previous statements given by them, and after putting a few questions to, them tendered them for cross-examination by the respondent. As a fact all the witnesses were cross examined by the respondent in great detail. The Deputy Superintendent held that a the charges framed against the respondent had been proved and he accordingly issued on December 14, 1954, a notice to him to show cause why he should not be punished by his pay being reduced from Rs. 125/- to Rs. 120/- per month for two years. To this again the respondent submitted his explanation and thereafter the Deputy Superintendent passed on January 5, 1955, an order reducing his pay as aforesaid. The respondent would have been well advised to have left the matter there. But he choose to prefer an appeal against the order. The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Belgaum, before whom it came, not only dismissed it but issued, in exercise of his powers in revision, a notice to the respondent to show cause why he should not be removed from service and after taking his explanation ordered his dismissal on July 5, 1956. The respondent filed a revision against this order to the Government of Bombay and under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, that came before the Government of Mysore and was dismissed on August 31, 1957. The respondent thereupon filed in the High Court of Mysore, the Writ Petition, out of which the present appeal arises questioning the validity of the order of dismissal dated July 5, 1956, on a number of grounds of which we are concerned in this appeal with only one, namely, that the inquiry by the Deputy Superintendent of Police was conducted in disregard of the rules of natural justice and in consequence the order made was bad. The learned judges of the, High Court agreed with this contention. They held, on the authority of certain observation is made by this Court in the Union of India v. T.R. Verma (1) and by the Bombay High Court in the State of Bombay v. Gajanan Mahadev (2) that principles of natural justice required that, the evidence of witnesses in (2) (1954) I.L.R.Bom.915. support of the charges should be recorded in the presence of the enquiring officer and of the person against whom it is sought to be used. In this view they held further that s. 545(8) of the Bombay Police Manual was bad as it contravened principles of natural justice. They accordingly held that the enquiry was vitiated by the admission in evidence of the statements made by the witnesses before Mr. Majumdar without an independent examination of them before the Deputy Superintendent of Police. Inthe result the order of dismissal was set aside. It is the correctness of this judgment that is now under challenge before us. The sole point for determination in this, appeal therefore is whether the procedure adopted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police in admitting the statements of witnesses examined before Mr. Majumdar in evidence is opposed to the rules of natural justice. The question is one of importance, because as appears from the cases which have come before us the procedure followed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police in this case is the one followed by many tribunals exercising quasijudicial powers. For a correct appreciation of the position, it is necessary to repeat what has often said that tribunals exercising quasijudicial functions are not courts and that therefore they are not bound to follow the procedure prescribed for trial of actions in Courts nor are they bound by strict rules of evidence. They can, unlike Courts, obtain all information material for the points under enquiry from all sources, and through all channels, without being fettered by rules and procedure, which govern proceedings; in Court. The only obligation which the law casts on them is that they should not act on any information which they may receive unless they put it to the party against whom it is to be used and give him a fair opportunity to explain it. What is a fair opportunity must depend on the facts and circumstances of each case but where such an opportunity had been given, the proceedings are not open to attack on the ground that the enquiry was not conducted in accordance. with the procedure followed in courts. The question as to the content of the rules natural justice has been subject of numerous decisions in England and in this country. Dealing with this question Lord Loreburn, L. C., observed, in Board of Education v. Rice’ (1) as follows
"In such cases the Board of Education will
have to ascertain the law as also to ascertain
the facts. I need not add that in doing
either they must act in good faith and fairly
listen to both sides, for that is a duty lying
upon every one who decides anything. But I do
not think they are bound to treat such a
question, as though it were a trial. They
have no power to administer an oath, and need
not examine witnesses. They can obtain
information in any way they think best, always
giving a fair opportunity to those who are
parties in the controversy for correcting or
contradicting any relevant statement
prejudicial to their view. This statement of the law was adopted again by the House of Lords in Local Government Board v. Arlidge This question has also- been considered by this Court in several decisions. One of the earliest of them is the decision in New Prakash Transport. Company. Ltd. v. New Suwarna Transport Company Ltd (3). There the facts were that a Tribunal constituted under the Motor Vehicles Act had (1) (1911) A.C. 179.182. (2) (1945) 1 A.C.120 (3) (1957) S.C.R refused to grant a permit to a company to run a bus on a certain route. Then the company filed a writ application in the High Court of Nagpur, attacking the order refusing the permit on the ground, inter alia, that the Tribunal had acted on a police report which was produced at the time of the hearing without giving the petitioner sufficient opportunity to most it, and had thereby violated the rules of natural justice. Agreeing with this contention the learned Judges of the High Court had set aside the order. In reversing this order, this Court hold that the police report was information on which the Tribunal was entitled to act, and as it was read at the enquiry, in the presence of the parties and they had been heard on it, there had been sufficient compliance with the rules of natural justice. We may next refer to the decision of this Court in the Union of India V. T.R. Verma (1). That arose out of a: Writ Petition filed by a Government servant in the High Court of Punjab, calling in question an order of dismissal passed against him, on the ground that the enquiry which resulted in the order had not been conducted in accordance with the rules of natural justice. The facts were that when the petitioner, and his witnesses appeared for giving evidence, the enquiring officer took their examination on hand himself, put them questions, and after he had finished, asked them to make their statements. The complaint of the petitioner was that he and his witnesses should have been allowed to give their own evidence, and than cross-examined, and that the departure from the normal procedure in taking evidence, was a violation of the rules of natural justice. In rejecting this contention this Court observed as follows :
"Stating it broadly and without intending it
to be exhaustive, it may be observed
that rules of natural justice require that a
party should- have the opportunity of adducing
all relevant evidence on which he relies, that
the evidence of the opponent should be taken
in his presence, and that he should be given
the opportunity of cross-examining the
witnesses examined by that party, and that no
materials should be relied on against him
without his being given an opportunity of
explaining them. If these rules are
satisfied, the enquiry is not open to attack
on the. ground that the procedure laid down in
the Evidence Act for taking evidence was not
strictly followed. Vide the recent decision
of this Court in Now Prakash Transport Co. v.
New Suwarna Transport Co., where this question
is discussed." It is on the observation that ,the evidence of the opponent should be taken in his presence" that the decision of the learned Judges that the evidence of witnesses should be recorded in the presence of the person against whom it is to be used is based. ,Read literally the passage quoted above is susceptible of the construction which the learned Judges have put on it, but when read in the context of the facts stated above, it will be clear that that is not its true import. No question arose there as to the propriety admitting in evidence the statement of a witness recorded behind the back of a party. The entire oral evidence in that case was recorded before the enquiring officer, and in the presence of the petitioner. So there was no question of a contrast between evidence recorded behind a party and admitted in evidence against him, and evidence recorded in his presence. What was actually under consideration was the procedure to be followed by quasi-judicial, bodies in holding enquiries, and the decision was that they were not bound to adopt the procedure followed in ’Courts, and that it was only necessary that rules of natural justice- should be observed. Discussing next what those rules required, it was observed that the person against whom a charge is made should know the evidence which is given against him,. so that he might be in a position to give his explanation. When the evidence is oral, normally the examination of the witness will in its entirety, take place before the party charged, who will have full opportunity of cross-examining him. The position is the same when a witness is called, the statement given previously by him behind the back of the party is put to him, and admitted in evidence, a copy thereof is given to the party, and he is given an opportunity to cross-examine him. To require in that case that the contents of the previous statement should be repeated by the witness word by word. and, sentence by sentence, is to insist on bare technicalities, and rules of natural jsutice are matters not of from but of substance. In our opinion they are sufficiently complied with when previous statements given by witnesses are read over to them, marked on their admission, copies thereof given to the person charged, and he is given an opportunity to crosss-examine them. This question came up for consideration by this Court more recently in Philbari Tea Estate v. Its Workmen(1). There the foots were that One of the workmen, B. N. Das was dismissed by the management as the result of an enquiry into a charge of theft. The Industrial Tribunal set aside this order on the ground that there had been no proper enquiry. What had happened was that the management had first made an investigation, and taken, statements of witnesses, and at the regular enquiry these statements were brought on record but they were not put to the witnesses, who were present, nor had copies thereof, been given to the workmen. The question was whether the enquiry (1)(1960) 1 S.C.R. 32. was in accordance with rules of natural justice. In answering it in the negative, Wanchoo, J, speaking for the Court, observed that the admission in evidence of the prior statements under the circumstances stated above, was not in consonance with the principles of natural justice laid down in the Union of India v. T. R. Verma (1). This decision is clearly of no assistance to the respondent. Reliance was also placed on the following observations by Chagla, C. J., in the State of Bombay v. Gajanan Mahadev
"Even assuming that a statement of such a
witness is furnished to the Government
servant, it is a sound rule that courts of law
follow and which even domestic tribunals
should follow that all evidence must be given
in the presence of an accused person and in
the presence of a person against whom action
is proposed to be taken. It is one thing to
make a statement behind the back of person; it
is entirely a different thing to make a
statement in front of the Court or a domestic
tribunal and in the presence of a person
against whom you are going to make serious
charges." But in our opinion, the purpose of an examination in the presence of a party against whom an enquiry is made, is sufficiently achieved, when a witness who has given a prior statement is recalled, that statement is put to him, and made known to the opposite party, and the witness is tendered for cross-examination by that party. In this view we must hold that the order dated July 5, 1956, is not liable to be set aside on the ground that the procedure followed at the inquiry by the Deputy Superintendent of police was in violation of the rules of natural (2) (1954) I.L.R. Bom. 915. justice. It is hardly necessary to add that cl. 8 of s.545 of the Bombay Police Manual can not be held to be bad as contravening the rules of natural justice. This finding however does not dispose of the entire matter. It is the contention of the respondent that the Deputy Inspector General of police was not entitled in revision to enhance the punishment and this question has not been decided by the learned Judges. It is therefore necessary to remand this case for hearing on this and all other issues which might arise for decision. We accordingly set aside the order in appeal and remand the case for hearing on the other points in this case. Costs of this appeal will abide the result of the hearing in the Court below. Case remanded.