Jahanvi Agarwal
The Supreme Court in the case Indian Oil Corporation & Ors. V. Ajit Kumar Singh & Anr., held that when a constitutional court in exercising its judicial review power then it cannot decide the case as if it is the first stage of the case. In the said case, the Bench while deciding an appeal overruled an order which was passed by the High Court.
The High Court had passed an order wherein it had canceled the punishment of an employee in a departmental proceeding after re-appreciating evidence at the stage of intra-court appeal. This order was overruled by the Supreme Court, which held that:
“If the facts of the case are examined in the light of the settled principles of law in the scope of judicial review, we find that the Division Bench of the High Court proceeded to reappreciate the entire evidence as if a conviction in a criminal trial was being re-examined by the next higher court.”
Supreme Court relied on Deputy General Manager (Appellate Authority) v. Ajai Kumar Srivastava, (2021) 2 SCC 612, wherein the court was of the following opinion:
“The constitutional court while exercising its jurisdiction of judicial review under Article 226 or Article 136 of the Constitution would not interfere with the findings of fact arrived at in the departmental inquiry proceedings except in a case of mala fides or perversity i.e. where there is no evidence to support a finding or where a finding is such that no man acting reasonably and with objectivity could have arrived at those findings and so long as there is some evidence to support the conclusion arrived at by the departmental authority, the same has to be sustained.”
In the Instant case, Respondent No. 1 i.e., Ajit Kumar Singh was accused of tampering the bid amount of one of the bidders as the tampered bid document contained his signatures. This was confirmed by the inquiry report submitted by the Central Forensic Institute. Accordingly, Charge Sheet was issued against him. The inquiry report was forwarded to Disciplinary Authority and imposed penalties. Appellate Authority also dismissed his appeal.
Thereafter, Respondent No. 1 filed a writ petition before High Court which was also dismissed. The Division Bench of the High Court overturned the decision of a Single Judge and revoked the punishment that had been imposed on the Respondent.
The Appellant filed an appeal before the Supreme Court and concluded by stating that a constitutional court cannot re-appreciate evidence in the case of judicial review.
Name of the Case: Indian Oil Corporation & Ors. V. Ajit Kumar Singh & Anr.
Diary Number: 3663/2023.
Bench: Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Rajesh Bindal