Document Fragment View
Fragment Information
Showing contexts for: BELGAUM in K. L. Shinde vs State Of Mysore on 26 March, 1976Matching Fragments
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 847 of 1974.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Decree dated the 3-10-72 of the Mysore High Court in Regular Second Appeal No. 729 of 1967.
S. S. Javali and H. K. Puri, for the Appellant. Narain Nettar, for the Respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by JASWANT SINGH, J. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and decree dated October 3, 1972, passed by a Single Judge of the Mysore High Court whereby allowing the respondent's second appeal No. 729 of 1967, he set aside the appellate judgment and decree dated April, 18, 1967 passed by Civil Judge, Belgaum, declaring the order dismissing the appellant from service as illegal and ultra vires.
Facts material for the purpose of this appeal are: The appellant herein was a Police Constable attached to Khade- bazar Police Station at Belgaum in 1960. In the small hours of the morning of November 17, 1960, the Cantonment Police intercepted a tonga transporting smuggled illicit liquor in four tubes from Devi Temple to the cantonment area with the intention of disposing of the same to bootleggers. After registering a case under section 66(b) of the Bombay Prohibition Act, the Cantonment P.S.I. proceeded against the tonga driver and another person who was found following the tonga, in a criminal court of competent jurisdiction and succeeded in securing their conviction for the aforesaid offence. On November 18, 1960, the Cantonment P.S.I. submitted a confidential report about the incident to the Superintendent of Police, Belgaum, and brought to the notice of the latter that some police constables including the appellant who were newly recruited and attached to different police stations in Belgaum were indulging in smuggling illicit liquor. On receipt of this report, the Superintendent of Police directed the P.S.I. Khade-bazar police station, to record the statements of three constables namely M. Y. Akki, Waman Mangesh, and Nishikant Shimaji Satyannawar. Pursuant to these directions, the P.S.I. recorded the statements of the aforesaid police constables in the presence of the Superintendent of Police. The statement of Nishikant and Akki, constables disclosed their own and six other police constables, complicity in the aforesaid smuggling activity. The Superintendent of Police thereupon suspended the appellant and the other six constables and ordered the S.D.P.O. to hold a departmental enquiry against them. The Superintendent of Police also transferred all the seven deliquents from Belgaum and directed that they would not leave their new stations without his permission except for purposes of or in connection with the department enquiry. Though the appellant sought permission to stay at Belgaum during the period of his suspension, his request was refused.
The Superintendent of Police again disagreed with the report of the Enquiry Officer and found that there was sufficient evidence against the appellant to prove his guilt. Accordingly he issued a notice to the appellant on December 20, 1961, calling upon the latter to show cause why he should not be dismissed from service. Not feeling satisfied with the explanation tendered by the appellant, the Superintendent of Police passed an order on February 9, 1962, dismissing the appellant from service. Aggrieved by this order, the appellant went up in appeal to the D.I.G. of Police but was unsuccessful. He also took the matter in revision to the Government but there also he failed. Eventually he brought a suit in the Court of the IInd Additional Munsiff, Belgaum, challenging the aforesaid orders of his dismissal and claiming the arrears of his pay.
The principal contentions raised by the appellant were two-fold: (1) That no reasonable opportunity was given to him to dedend himself and (2) that the Superintendent of Police was wrong in relying on the statements of the witnesses recorded before the charge was framed against him and in re-assessing the evidence contrary to the conclusion arrived at by the Enquiry Officer who held that there was no evidence to substantiate the charge against him.
After a regular trial, the suit was dismissed by the Munsiff, Belgaum. On appeal, the Civil Judge, Belgaum reversed the judgment of the Munsiff and decreed the suit. Aggrieved by the decision of the Civil Judge, Belgaum, the State Government preferred an appeal to the High Court of Mysore which, as stated above, was allowed.