TMI Blog1962 (3) TMI 84X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lant preferred an appeal before the State Government. It would appear that he had submitted an advance copy of his appeal to the Revenue Minister of PEPSU who called for the records of the case immediately. After perusing them he wrote on the file that the charges against the appellant were serious and that they were proved. He also observed that it was necessary to stop the evil with a strong band. He, however-, expressed the opinion that as the appellant was a refugee and bad a family to support, his dismissal would be too hard and that instead of dismissing him outright he should be reverted to his original post of qanungo and warned that if be does not behave properly in future he will be dealt with severely. On the next day the State of PEPSU merged in the State of Punjab. According to the appellant the aforesaid remarks amount to an order of the State Government and that they were orally communicated to him by the Revenue Minister. This is denied on behalf of the State. It is, however, common ground that the aforesaid remarks or order, whatever they be, were never communicated officially to the appellant. After the merger of PEPSU with the State of Punjab the file wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rely an administrative decision and that in so far as this was concerned there was no reason why the State Government was incompetent to change its decision if it thought administratively advisable to do so . We cannot accept the view taken by the High Court regarding the nature of what it calls the second part of the proceedings. Departmental proceedings taken against a Government servant are not divisible in the sense in which the High Court understands them to be. There is just one continuous proceeding though there are two stages in it. The first is coming to a conclusion on the evidence as to whether the charges alleged against the Government servant are established or not and the second is reached only if it is found that they are so established. That stage deals with the action to be taken against the Government servant concerned. The High Court accepts that the first stage is a judicial proceeding and indeed it must be so because charges have to be framed, notice has to be given and the person concerned has to be given an opportunity of being heard. Even so far as the second stage is concerned Art. 311(2) of the Constitution requires a notice to be given to the person conc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rned counsel for the appellant his appeal pertains to the department which was in charge of the Revenue Minister and, therefore, he could deal with it. His decision and order would according to him, be the decision and order of the State Government. On behalf of the State reliance was, however, placed on r. 34 which required certain classes of cases to be submitted to the Rajpramukh and the Chief Minister before the issue of orders. But it was conceded during the course of the argument that a case of the kind before us does not fall within that rule. No other provision bearing on the point having been brought to our notice we would, therefore, hold that the Revenue Minister could make an order on behalf of the State Government. The question, therefore, is whether he did in fact make such an order. Merely writing something on the file does not amount to an order. Before something amounts to an order of the State Government two things are necessary. The order has to be expressed in the name of the Governor as required by cl. (1) of Art. 166 and then it has to be communicated. As already indicated, no formal order modifying the decision of the Revenue Secretary was ever made. Unti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a contrary conclusion later on, until a final decision is reached by them and is communicated to the Rajpramukh in the form of advice and acted upon by him by issuing an order in that behalf to the respondent. Thus it is of the essence that the order has to be communicated to the person who would be affected by that order before the State and that person can be bound by that order. For, until the order is communicated to the person affected by it, it would be open to the Council of Ministers to consider the matter over and over again and, therefore, till its communication the order cannot be regarded as anything more than provisional in character. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the remarks or the order of the Revenue Minister, PEPSU are of no avail to the appellant. Now as regards the next contention, Learned counsel for the appellant contends that since his appeal was not decided by the Revenue Minister of Punjab, Mr. Darbara Singh but by the Chief Minister Mr. Pratap Singh Kairon, who bad no jurisdiction to deal with it, the appeal must be deemed to be still pending. In this connection he relied upon r. 18 of the Rules of Business framed by the Governor of Punj ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... riate. Finally there is cl. (xix) which confers a wide discretion upon the Chief Minister to call for any file and deal with it himself. Apart from that we may refer to r. 4 of the Rules of Business of the Punjab Government, which reads thus : The Council shall be collectively responsible for all executive orders issued in the name of the Governor in accordance with these Rules whether such orders are authorised by an individual Minister on a matter pertaining to his portfolio or as the result of discussion it a meeting of the Council, or howsoever otherwise. Thus the order passed by the Chief Minister even though it is on a matter pertaining to the portfolio of the Revenue Minister, will be deemed to be an order of the Council of Ministers. So deemed its contents would be the Chief Minister s advice to the Governor, for which the Council of Ministers would be collectively responsible. The action taken thereon in pursuance of r. 8 of the Rules of Business made by the Governor under Art. 166(3) of the Constitution would then be the action of the Government. Here one (if the Under Secretaries to the Government of Punjab informed the appellant by his letter dated May, 1, 1957 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
