State Bank Of Bikaner & Jaipur & Ors vs Shri Prabhu Dayal Grover on 19 September, 1995
In the decision reported in (1995) 6 SCC 279 (State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur v. Prabhu Dayal Grover), similar regulation viz., Regulation 68(3) of the State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipure Officers' Service Regulations, 1979, was considered by the Honourable Supreme Court and in paragraph 13 it is held thus,
"13. .......... whether under the Regulations, the authorities concerned are required to give reasons for their decisions. Regulation 68(3) lays down the procedure the disciplinary authority is required to follow after it receives the proceedings of the enquiry including the report of the Inquiry Officer. On careful perusal thereof we find that only in those cases where the disciplinary authority considers it necessary to direct fresh or further enquiry or disagrees with the findings of the Inquiry Officer, it has to record the reasons for its such directions, but there is no such obligation if it agrees with the findings of the Inquiry Officer. It can, therefore, be legitimately inferred that when express provisions have been made in the Regulations for recording reasons in only the first two of the three fact situations and not the other there is no implied obligation also to record the reasons in case of concurrence with the findings of the Inquiry Officer. Even if we proceed on the basis that such an obligation is implicit, still the order of the disciplinary authority cannot be held to be bad as, on perusal thereof, we find that before concurring with the findings of the Inquiry Officer it has gone through the entire proceeding and applied its mind thereto. In our considered opinion, when the disciplinary authority agrees with the findings of the Inquiry Officer and accepts the reasons given by him in support of such findings, it is not necessary for the punishing authority to reappraise the evidence to arrive at the same findings. We are, therefore, unable to accept the contention of Mr Dutta that the order of punishment was liable to be struck down as it was a non-speaking order and did not contain any reason."