TMI Blog1964 (11) TMI 114X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cts. The matter arises against the following background of established facts. 2. The petitioner became a servant of the Government of India in the Posts and Telegraphs Department in 1936. From the year 1956, he was serving as Sub Postmaster at various places. On 9-3-1959, while he was serving at Arni, he received a notice with regard to ten charges framed against him. It is important, for our purpose, to scrutinise the substance of those charges. Charges 1 and 4 to 10 related to irregularities, mostly of a subsidiary character; charge 4, which appears to be the most serious, related to alleged incorrect entries in and attendance register from 8-1-1959 to 14-1-1959, regarding the permanent E. D. D. A. Charges 2 and 3 were very serious, taken together, and it is not disputed that upon the facts, which formed the basis of those charges, the Departmental authorities gave a complaint to the police to the effect that the writ petitioner was guilty of offences under Ss. 409, 467 and 471I.P.C. The petitioner alleges that he took up the stand that he should be first prosecuted in the Criminal Court, and that the departmental authorities should abide by the decision of the criminal cour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is acquitted upon grave charges arising out of the facts, on the substantial merits, and not merely on some technical plea, such as lack of sanction, it is not in consonance with principles of natural justice that a domestic forum, exercising disciplinary jurisdiction, should come to a different conclusion in departmental proceedings, whether before or after the criminal trial. In AIR 1952 Mad 853 the matter was expressed in the following form: It would indeed be a strange predicament when in respect of the same offence, he should be punished by one Tribunal on the footing that he was guilty of the offence and that he should be honourably acquitted by another Tribunal of the very same offence. As primarily the Criminal Courts of the land are entrusted with the enquiry into offences, it is desirable that the findings and orders of the Criminal Courts should be treated as conclusive in proceedings before quasi judicial tribunals................. But, it is actually a little difficult to state the exact principle upon which such a proposition can be defended. Authorities are not lacking for the view that a mere acquittal by a criminal court, does not necessarily absolve the conc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Sayeed J., observed that when there was an acquittal in a criminal court, in the absence of any further disciplinary proceedings launched by the Government, the plaintiff, who was under suspension, would be entitled to continue in the employment, and ought to be re-instated. 6. We may next examine Mahomed Is rail v. Sia Suran Sinha, (1962) ILL J 519 Pat which concerned the alleged wilful falsifications of accounts by one in the position of an accused; the evidence adduced on behalf of the Management, which dispensed with the services of the petitioner, included certified copies of depositions of witnesses examined in the criminal court. Nevertheless, the Bench held that, though the evidence might not be sufficient for securing conviction in a criminal case, the management had every justification to deny re-employment, in the context of heavy suspicion relating to the charge. In Radhakanta v. State of Orissa, AIR 1962 Ori 125 a Bench of that court held that the mere fact that the criminal court did not convict the plaintiff of the charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery, did not preclude the department form making a further probe into the matter, as the plain ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it for the decision at least of the criminal trial court before taking action against an employee . Ridge v. Baldwin, 1962 2 WLR 716, is a decision that contains much matter of interest upon the relationship between a conclusion in the exercise of a criminal jurisdiction and the cognizance of it by an Administrative authority. The question was whether the Watch Committee who were seized of a matter of termination of employment, were justified in considering, inter alia, the observations of Donevan J., in certain judgments on two indictments. Another aspect of this question will be found examined in R. v. Metropolitan Police Commr., 1953. 2 ALL ER 717. In General Council of Medical Education and Registration of United Kingdom v. Speck man, 1943AC 627 the question was whether a, Medical Council could regard the decree in a divorce suit as prima facie evidence of adultery. On the basis of the dicta in these decisions, I think that the following principles may be said to emerge. 8. Firstly, an Administrative authority, in initiating disciplinary proceedings, is not bound to wait for the verdict of a criminal court. But where the criminal court has tried the concerned person and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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