Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Pavan Ved vs Union Of India on 14 May, 2018
Bench: Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre
1
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5179 OF 2018
(Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 9094/2018)
PAVAN VED Appellant(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)
O R D E R
1) Leave granted.
2) The appellant is a retired Commissioner of Income Tax, who was
charge-sheeted by the Under Secretary, Central Board of Direct
Taxes on 13.09.2002 in which four charges were levelled against the appellant, which included negligence and incorrect assessments without proper appreciation of evidence.
3) An Enquiry Report dated 19.03.2004 exonerated the appellant of all the four charges. The Disciplinary Authority took its own time, and ultimately, after consulting the Union Public Service Commission sometime in 2013, issued a show cause notice dated 12.07.2013. The challenge to the show cause notice was successful, and the Central Administrative Tribunal, by its judgment dated 22.05.2015, set aside the said show cause notice.
4) However, in a writ petition filed against the aforesaid Signature Not Verified judgment, Digitally signed by R NATARAJAN the writ petition was allowed and the Disciplinary Date: 2018.05.17 16:47:46 IST Reason:
Authority was told to go ahead with the proceedings. 2
5) We have been informed that the appellant has since retired in the year 2014. We notice that, on facts, there is a massive unexplained delay of 9 years between the date of the Enquiry Report and the date of the show cause notice. It is obvious that the Disciplinary Authority, if it is going to upset the Enquiry Report, must do so within a reasonable period of time, which reasonable period has long since elapsed.
6) On this ground alone, we therefore, allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the High Court.
.......................... J. (ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN) ..........................
(ABHAY MANOHAR SAPRE) New Delhi;
May 14, 2018.
3
ITEM NO.53 COURT NO.11 SECTION XIV
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 9094/2018
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 25-08-2017 in WP(C) No. 215/2016 passed by the High Court Of Delhi At New Delhi) PAVAN VED Petitioner(s) VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s) Date : 14-05-2018 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ABHAY MANOHAR SAPRE For Petitioner(s) Mr. Puneet Jain, Adv.
Ms. Christi Jain, AOR Mr. Abhinav Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Harsh Jain, Adv.
Ms. Ankita Gupta, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Shekhar Kumar, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The appeal is allowed in terms of the signed order. Pending applications, if any, stand disposed of. (R. NATARAJAN) (SAROJ KUMARI GAUR) COURT MASTER (SH) BRANCH OFFICER (Signed order is placed on the file)