TMI Blog1961 (12) TMI 110X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Police to the rank of Inspector of Police, was illegal and void, and granting certain consequential reliefs. The judgment of the High Court and the learned Additional District Judge Seem to us to be clearly unsustainable. The Courts below held that the respondent had been reduced in rank in violation of the terms of s. 240(3) of the Government of India Act, 1935, which corresponds to Art. 311 of the Constitution, inasmuch as he was not given an opportunity to show cause against the order proposed to be made. It is not in dispute that the opportunity has not been given. In our view, however, for reasons to be presently stated, the respondent was not entitled to that opportunity. On June 8, 1948, the respondent was holding the post o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nquiry had been held behind the back of the respondent. Notwithstanding this, the order reverting the respondent was maintained. There is a letter addressed by the Inspector General of Police to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Madhya Pradesh, dated August 19, 1950, written after the departmental inquiry wherein it is stated that the respondents previous record was not satisfactory and that he had been promoted to officiate as Deputy Superintendent of Police as the Government was in need of officers and that he had been given a chance in the expectation that he would turn a new leaf but the complaint made in the confidential memorandum was a clear proof that the officer was habitually dishonest and did not deserve promotion. The res ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n rank and this reduction in rank was illegal as the respondent had not been given an opportunity to show cause against it. We are unable to agree with the observation in M. A. Waheed's case(1) that when a person officiating in a post, is reverted for unsatisfactory work, that reversion amounts to a reduction in rank. A person officiating in a post has no right to hold it for all times. He may have been given the officiating post because the permanent incumbent was not available, having gone on leave or being away for some other reasons. When the permanent incumbent comes back, the person officiating is naturally reverted to his original post. This is no reduction in rank for it was the very term on which he had been given the offici ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of Deputy Superintendent of Police to which he had been given an officiating appointment and he does not contend to the contrary. He cannot therefore, without more, complain if he is sent back to his original post. This is what happened in this case even if it be taken that the respondent had been reverted to his original rank because he was found unsuitable for the higher rank to which he had been given an officiating appointment. It is however true that even an officiating person may be reverted to his original rank by way of punishment. It was therefore, observed in Dhingra's case (1) at p. 863, Thus if the order entails or provides for the forfeiture of his pay or allowances or the loss of his seniority in his substantive rank ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is irrelevant in deciding the question whether the action had been taken by way of punishment: see Parshotam Lal Dhingra's case (1) at p. 862. It does not require to be repeated now that unless the reversion is by way of punishment, s. 240 (3) is not attracted. The High Court seems to have been in error also in drawing an inference from the holding of the departmental inquiry that the respondent must have been reduced in rank by way of punishment. The departmental inquiry was held long after the order reverting the respondent had been passed and could not have been the occasion for the reversion of the respondent. The Government had the right to consider the suitability of the respondent to hold the position to which he had been app ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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