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TMI Blog1986 (3) TMI 334X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... osted at Bhavnagar with effect from 9th March 1984. One Janakrai Vyas, a police Sub-Inspector in the Anti-Corruption Bureau, was also working at Bhavnagar at the material time. Naliniben, the daughter of the said Janakrai, had applied for a loan of ₹ 25,000/- under the Educated Unemployed Self-Employment Scheme as she proposed to start business. On 20th March 1984, Janakrai approached the petitioner for sanctioning a further loan of ₹ 15,000/- which the petitioner could not under the Rules. Annexure "A" to the petition is a copy of the said application. It is alleged that the refusal to sanction the additional loan annoyed Janakrai who with the help of two other Government servants arranged a trap on the plea that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of this contention the learned advocate for the petitioner places reliance on the observations of the Supreme Court in paragraphs 57 to 60 in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India . 4. In J.S. Solanki v. Chief Conservator of Forests 1986 (1) 27(1) GLR 41, this Court was required to consider if it was open to the State Government/competent authority to both transfer and suspend a Government servant against whom an inquiry touching his integrity was under contemplation or was actually pending or whether only one of the two reme thes was available. In that case Rule 5 of the Rules was under consideration. Under that Rule a civil servant can be placed under suspension where a disciplinary proceeding against him is contemplated or is pending or whe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat suspension and consequential fixation of subsistence allowance has financial implications and simultaneous transfer or change of headquarters adds to the woes of the delinquent as he may not be allotted Government quarters at the new station and may have to pay a substantial amount by way of rent which would have a crippling effect on his monetary condition. Therefore, in view of the above decision, the position in law is that while the power to suspend and transfer or transfer and suspend exists and may be exercised simultaneously or one after another, such power must be exercised with restraint and sparingly as it entails civil consequences. In such cases, when the authority is required to exercise such power it must first address its ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cised in an unreasonable and arbitrary manner. Insistence on the application of the principles of natural justice to administrative action rules out bias and guarantees fair treatment. There can, therefore, be no doubt that even disciplinary authorities are bound to act fairly and their actions are also liable to scrutiny by Courts. But in the application of fair procedure there must be flexibility, for it is not possible to lay down rigid rules since much would depend on the subject matter of each case. In cases which demand immediate and urgent action, insistence on prior hearing would prove disastrous, e.g., raiding premises on suspicion that it is being used for illicit or immoral purposes. Similarly it would be disastrous to public int ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e the life of the law is not logic but experience and every legal proposition must, in the ultimate analysis, be tested on the touchstone of pragmatic realism, the audi alteram partem rule would by the experimental test, be excluded, if importing the right to be heard has the effect of paralysing the administrative process or the need for promptitude or the urgency of the situation so demands... 7. The above observation makes it abundantly clear that the application of the rule of natural justice of being heard before any administrative order having civil consequences is passed, cannot be insisted upon if the same is likely to defeat the very object or purpose of interim suspension. While it cannot be disputed on principle that the princip ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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