DELHI ADMINISTRATION versus CHANAN SHAH

DELlll ADMINISTRATION

CHANAN SHAH

February 12, 1969

[S. M, SIKRI, R. S. BACHAWAT AND K. S. HEGDE, JJ.j

Puniab Police Rules 1934, r. 16. 38-Sanction of District Magistrate for departmental inquirJ under said rule-inquiry vitiated when require-ment~ of rule not followed.

The respondent was recruited as constable in undivided Punjab in 1934 and m 1946 became an Assistant Sub-Inspector. In 1950 he was posted at Delhi. In 1955 he was confirmed in the above rank by the Senior Superintendent .of Police, Delhi. In 1957 there was an acc~satio!l against him of having received illegal .grat~cation in ~ase he was mve~tl­gating, whe~eupon alter summary mquuy. the Supermtendent. of Pohc.e (City) Delhi passed an order of censure agamst him. On review of this order under r. 16.28 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 the Deputy Inspec-tor General of Police passed an order cancelling the order of censure and further ordered that the respondent should be dealt with departmentally. The conduct of the departmental mquiry was entrusted to the Supennten-dent of Police Central District, New Delhi who asked the District Magis-trate for the necessary sanction under r. 16.38 of the Punjab Police Rul<S, 1934. On receiving the sanction the J,nquiry Officer proceeded with the inquiry and found that the allegations against the respondent were subs-tantially true. After show caUSe notice he passed an order in 1958 dis-missing the respondent from service. An appeal against the order of dis-missal was rejected by the Deputy Inspector General and the subsequent revision was dismissed by the Inspector-General. The respondent tnere upon filed writ petition in the Punjab High Court for quashing the dismissal order. The petition was dismissed by the Single Judge but the Division Bench held that the dismissal order could not be sustained in view of .the fact that the inquiry was made in contravention of Ch. XVI r. 38 of the Punjab Police Rules. The Delhi Administration appealed to this Court. HELD: The provisions of sub-rr. (I) and (2) of r. 38 are attracted in cases of complaint received by the Superintendent of Police, indicating the commission by police officer of criminal offence in connection with his official relations with the public. In such case the superintendent of police is required to bring the complaint to the notice of the District Magistrate who is to decide whether the investigation of the complaint should be made by selected Magistrate having first class powers or should b.e lef~ to polic~ officer. If the investigation discloses prima faci<' case Judicrnl prosecution should normally follow unless for reasons tG be recorded in writing the District Magistrate directs that the matter should be disposed of departmentally. [657 D-E] ·

In the present case the complaint received by the Superintendent of Police (City) Delhi indicated the commission by the appellant of crimi-nal olfonce m "?"!'ection with his official relations was the public. The complamt fell withm r, 38(1) and ~hould have been dealt with according-ly. Nevertheless there was no investigation of the kind prescribed by r, ~8(1). The District Magistrate did not direct any preliminary investi-gatJOn no! was. any prima fa_cie case against the respondent as result of such an mvestigalton, established. The District Magistrate was not in-LIOSqp./69-7

[1969] 3 S.C.R.

- 654 SUPREME COURT REPORTS \

formed that the Superintendent of Police held an inquiry and passed an order of censure and that his order was set aside by the Deputy Inspector-Geperal. The inquiry held by the Superintendent of Police was not autho-rised by the District Magistrate nor did it receive his approval. The Dis-trict Magistrate gave his sanction without recording any reasons and with-out applying his mind to the requirement of r. 16.38. In the circums-tances the departmental action taken against the respondent was invalid. [657 F; 658 C-Dl

State of Uttar Pradesh v. Babu Ram Upadhya, [1961] 2 S.C.R. 679, 711, 727-728 and Jagan Nath v. Sr. Supdt. of Police, Ferozepur, A.LR. 1962 Punjab 38, referred to.

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : ,Civil Appeal No. 277 of 1966.

Appeal by special leave from !be judgment and order dated January 23, 1963 of !be Punjab High Court, Circuit Bench at Delhi in Letters Patent Appeal No. 68-D of 1961.

V. A. Seyid Muhammad, R. N. Sachthey and B. D. Sharma, for !be appellants.

"f1rank Anthony an<l Harbans Singh, for !be respondent.

The Judgment of !be Court was delivered by

Bachawat, J. The respondent was recruited as constable in

the police service in !be undivided. Punjab on April 3, 1934. By April 1946 he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspec-tor. In 1950, he was posted at Delhi. On August 26, 1955 he was confirmed in this rank by !be Senior Superintendent of Police, Delhi. In !be beginning of 1957 an accusation was made against him that while investigating case registered by him against one Mohammad Jamil under First Information Report No. 1322 dated November 25, 1956 he had taken one Rame Shah to the Lahori Gate police post without formally arresting him and re-ceived from him by way of illegal gratification Rs. 100 which was paid on his behalf by one Roshan Lal. On coming to know of Ibis complaint Sri A. C. Chaturvedi, Superintendent of Police (City), Delbi, made some kind of summary inquiry into the matter and on February 28, 1957 passed !be following order :-"Reference complaint received from S.P.'s Office Vide No. 1212/GB, dated the 12th of January 1957, Integrity of S.I. Chanan Shah No. 112/D was found to be doubtful in connection wilb case F.I.R. 1322 dated 25-11-1956 under section 20/11/78 of P.S. Kotwali against one Mohd. Jamil Pakistani Na-fj tional. He is hereby censured.'' On review of this order under rule 16.28 of !be Punjab Police Rules, 1934, Sri N. S. Saxena, the

Deputy Inspector General of Police passed the follow-ing order on June 12, 1957 :-

"I have gone through the inquiries made by the city police as well as !>y the Crime Branch and feel that the :S.I. should have been dealt with departmentally for his misconduct and by which course the S.I. could have chance to prove his innocence. I therefore order under P.R. 16.28 that the censure awarded to officiating Chanan Shah be cancelled and he should be dealt with departmentally. The departmental file will be prepared by Sri B. L. Gulati, I.P.S., Superintendent of Police (Traffic) . The relevant papers may be sent to him."

The conduct of the departmental inquiry was entrusted to Sri D. C. Sharma, Superintendent of Police, Central District, Delhi. On August 20, 1957 Sri Sharma wrote the following D.O. letter No. 2165-e to Sri C. B. Dube, District Magistrate, Delhi :-

" 1. On 25-11-56, S.I. Chanan Shah No. 112/D while posted as I/ PP. Lahori Gate recovered re-volver with 6 rounds from the possession of one Mohd. Jamil alias Mohan Lal of Lahore while the latter was staying at Regal Hotel. case FIR No. 1322, dated 25-11-56 u/s. 20-11-78 Arms Act was accordingly registered at P .S. Kotwali. The investigation of this case was carried out by S.I. Chanan Shah. '

2. During the course of investigation, the S.I. raided the house of one Rame Shah owner of shop No. 1387 Lajpat Rai Market. Although nothing in-criminating was found, yet he took Rame Shah to the P.P. where it is alleged, he (Rame Shah) was threaten-ed with arrest and later on let off at midnight after he had paid sum of Rs. 100/- through one Roshan Lal by way of illegal gratification.

3: In th~ course of inquiry it is felt that there is no sufficient evidence to prosecute the S.I. in court of law under the Prevention of Corruption Act though he can be successfully dealt with departmentally.

4. In v!ew of the above it is proposed that he ma be deal~ with d7partm_entally instead of filing judici~ proceedmgs agamst hun. Necessary approval under P.P. Rule 16.38 may kindly be accorded." copy ?f the letter was ,Produced in this Court. On Au ust 2 l ~ 957 Sn C. .. Dube, District Magistrate, Delhi sent theg follo : mg letter to Sn D. C. Sharma:-· ' w

"Please refer to your D.O. letter No. 2165-C, dated the 20th August, l % 7.

Sanction is hereby accorded to the taking of depart-mental action against S.l. Cilanan Shah as required under Punjab Police Rule 16.38."

On November 15, 1957 Sri Sharma drew up formal charge sheet On the basis . of the charge-sheet he he1d an inquiry and found that the allegations agamst the respondent were sut>stan-tially true. On March 18, 19j8 Sri Sharma served notice on th.e respondent to show cause wny he should not be dismissed. After considering his reply and hearing hlm personally Sri Sharma passed an order on Apnl 12, J9j8 cusmissmg hlm irom service. An appeal filed by hlm against the order was rejected by the Deputy Inspector General on February 14, 1959, and revision peution filed by hlm was rejected by the Inspector General on June 5, 1959.

On August 18, 1959 the respondent filed writ petition in the Punjab rligh Court for quashmg the dismissal order. One of the grounds ta.Ken by him was that the departmental inquiry was made in contravention of Chapter 16 rule 38 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934. Gosain, J. dismissed the petition. The res-pondent filed Letters Patent appeal against this order. Divi-sional Bench of the High Court allowed the appeal and set aside the order dismissing the respondent from service. The Divi-sional Bench held that the dismissal order could not be sustained in view of the fact that the inquiry was made in contravention of Chapter XVI rule 38. The present appeal has been filed by the Delhi Administration after obtaining special leave.

Chapter XVI of the Punjab Police Rules deals with punish-ments. Rule 1 P.rescribes the punishments and provides that "no police officer shall be departmentally punished otherwise than as provided in these rules." Rule 23 provides for prompt record of complaints against police ofjicer made by member of the general public and the transmission of the record to the Superin-tendent of Police or other gazetted officer under whose imme-diate control the officer who has recorded the complaint is serv-ing. If such officer is of opinion that the allegations in the record constitute prima facie case for inquiry, departmental inquiry as in rule 24 must be held. Rule 38 specially deals with certain types of complaint against police officer. Sub-Rules (1) and (2) of Rule 38 are as follows :-

" ( 1) Immediate information shall be given to the District Magistrate of any complaint received by the Superintendent of Police, which indicates the commis-sion by police officer of criminal offence in connec-

lion with his official relations with the public. The Dis-trict Magistrate, will decide whether the in~estigation of the complaint shall be conducted by police officer, or made over to selected magistrate having 1st class powers.

· ( 2) When investigation of such complaint estab-B lishes prima facie case, judicial prosecution shall normally follow; the matter shall be disposed of depart-mentally only if the District Magistrate so orders for reasons to be recorded. When it is decided to proceed departmentally the procedure prescribed in rule 16.24 shall be followed. An officer found guilty on charge of the nature referred to in this rule shall ordinarily be dismissed."

The provisions of sub-rules (1) and (2) of r. 38 are attract-ed in cases of complaint received by the Superintendent of Police, indicating the commission by police officer of crimi-nal offence in connection with his official relations with the public. In such case, the Superintendent of Police is required . to bring the complaint to the notice of the District Magistrate who is to decide whether the investigation of the complaint should be made by a· selected magistrate having first class powers or should be left to police officer. If the mvestigation discloses prima facie case, judicial prosecution should normally follow unless for reasons to be recorded in writing the District Magistrate directs that the matter should be disposed of departmentally.

In the present case, the complaint received by the Superin-tendent of Police (City) Delhi indicated the commission by the respondent of criminal offence in connection with his official relations with the public. The complaint fell within r. · 38(1) and should have been dealt with accordingly. Nevertheless there w:is !10 inv~tigation .of the k~nd prescribed by rule 38 (1). The D1strtct Magistrate did not direct any preliminary investigatio~ nor was anr pri"!a ~acie case against the respondent as resu11 of such an mvestigation established.

In State '!f pttar Pradesh v. Babu Ram Upadhya(') th1

Court by ma1onty held that the provisions of paragraph 486 ruli I of the U.P. P~Iice Re_gulations w_ere mandatory and that i depa:tme~tal action ~gai?st the pohce officer in disregard thereo was mvalid. The mmonty held that the paragraph was director and as there was su~stantial compli_ance with its provisions th departmental proceedmgs were not mvalid. In I agan Nath v ff Sr. Supdt. of. ~o/ice, Ferozepur(') the Punjab High Court belt that the provJSJons of rule 16.38 (1) and (2) were mandator

{I) [1961) 2 S.C.R. 679, 711, 727-728,

(2) A.I.R, 1962 Punjab 38,.

and that departmental inquiry held without following its pro-visions was illegal.

It is not necessary to decide in this case whether the provi-sions of Rule 16.38 of the Punjab Police Rules are mandatory or directory. E,ven assuming that the rule is directory we find that there has been no substantial ·compliance with its provisions. The complaint fell within rule 16.38, and it was for the District Magistrate to decide who should investigate the case. No investi-gation of any kind was made under his directions. Without obtajning his directions, the Superintendent of Police held an inquiry and passed an order of censure. The order was set aside by the Deputy Inspector-General. Thereafter by D.O. letter No. 2165-C, the Superintendent of Police, asked for the sanction of the District Magistrate to proceed departmentally. Even at this stage, the· District Magistrate was not informed that the Superin-tendent of Police held an inquiry and passed an order of censure and that his order was set aside by the Deputy Inspector-General. The inquiry held by the Superintendent of Police was not autho-rised by the District Magistrate nor did it receive his approval. The District Magistrate gave his sanction without recording any reasons and without applying his mind to the requirement of r. 16.38. In the! circumstances, we are constrained to hold that the departmental action taken against the respondent is invalid.

In the result, the appeal is dismissed with costs.

Appeal dismissed.