New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday said disciplinary proceedings cannot continue endlessly as it would be destructive of the Rule of Law and highly prejudicial to the official facing it.

The court's observations were made while dealing with the central government's challenge to a CAT order rejecting its plea for an extension of time to complete the departmental inquiry against the petitioner, an Officer on Special Duty (Legal at the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs).

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“There is no gainsaying the legal position that the Disciplinary Proceedings cannot continue ad infinitum. Allowing such proceedings to continue ad infinitum would not only be highly prejudicial to the Petitioner herein but destructive of the Rule of Law,” said the bench comprising Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta.

The court stated that the Union of India is bound to act in a fair non-discriminatory, reasonable, and non-capricious manner, and in the normal course, the disciplinary proceedings, in this case, ought to have been concluded by the end of 2016.

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The petitioner was suspended on August 21, 2013, for an incident of July 2013 and was subsequently served with a departmental charge sheet/memorandum of charge dated July 07, 2015.

However, in spite of the efflux of almost five years from the issuance of the charge sheet and the grant of two extensions by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the departmental inquiry was not concluded by the central government authorities and finally, in July 2021, the CAT rejected the Centre's application for further extension of time and directed that the sealed cover qua the petitioner be opened forthwith, and he be granted promotions at par with his juniors.

The court noted that as per a decision of the Supreme Court, every employer --whether State or private—has to make sincere endeavours to conclude departmental enquiry proceedings within a reasonable time and as far as possible within six months and in cases where the employer can't do so due to certain unavoidable causes then an effort should be made to conclude the same within the reasonably extended period but not more than a year.

The Central Vigilance Commission also issued a Circular in 2016 containing instructions to comply with the said directions of the apex court in all disciplinary proceedings, it added.

The court observed that the facts of the present case provided no scope to granting any indulgence to the respondent as it cannot be said that ample opportunities were not given for the conclusion of the departmental proceedings.

“The Respondent 'Union of India' being a 'State' under Article 12 of the Constitution is bound to act in a fair non-discriminatory, reasonable, and non-capricious manner. The conduct of the Respondent in the facts of the present over a long period of five years and not merely on one-two date of hearing, disentitles it for any discretionary relief of extension of time… Authority must be strictly held to the standards by which it professes its conduct to be judged,” the court said.

“It is not in dispute that in the normal course the disciplinary proceedings ought to have been concluded by the end of 2016. More than adequate opportunities to complete the disciplinary proceedings arising from Departmental Charge Sheet dated 16.07.2015 had been granted by the CAT firstly in 2016, and then again in 2020. The proceedings were admittedly not concluded within this long period stretching from July 2015 till May 2021,” the court further said.

The court stated that the authorities “evidently received a time period of more than five years, which is many times more than the time period contemplated under the dicta of the Supreme Court” and declared that the proceedings arising from the departmental charge-sheet no longer survived and stood closed.

The court rejected the challenge to the CAT order by the Centre and directed that the petitioner be given all consequential benefits, including the necessary promotions at par with his juniors, within four weeks. PTI ADS

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