Lekh Raj Khurana v. Union of India

Judgment

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 1719 of 1967. AppeaJfrom the judgment and decree dated May 23, 1961 of the Punjab High Court, Circuit Bench at Delhi in Regular Second Appeal No. 43-D of 1956. N. N. Keswani, for the appellant. V. A. Seyid Muhammad and S. P. Nayar, for the respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Grover, J. This is an appeal by certificate from a judgment and decree of the Punjab High Court (Circuit Bench, Delhi} by which the suit filed by the appellant for a declaration that the order dated May 26, 1951 directing' his removal from ser11ice was wrongful, illegal and void and that he still continued to be in the service of the respondent as Supervisor, Army Ordnance Corps According to the allegations in the plaint the appellant was appointed by the Governor-General in July 1942 as Supervisor. Army Ordnance Corps which, according to him, was a civil post under the Crown in India.

In the months of September and October, 1950 the appellant was served with chargesheets by the Ordnance Officer, Administration, Shakurbasti, Delhi State, where he was poste<l at that time calling upon him to submit his defence to th! charges of making serious false allegations against his superior officer Maj. H. S. Dhillon. The appellant asked for grant of time for submitting his defence and he also demanded copies of certain documents etc to prove his case. On May 26, 1951 while this inquiry was pending he was served with an order by the Ordnance Officer, Administration, Sbakurbasti, Delhi which was as follows:- "Under instructions received from Army Headquarters you al'! hereby given one month's notice of disc~arge with immediate effect, services being no longer reqmred.

Your services will be terminated on 25th June, 1951" . . 'J'.he appellant challen.ged the legality of the above order prmc1pal!y on th.e ground that it ha? been passed by an officer who wa~ su~ord~~ate to ~he authonty who appointed him and that no !n.qutry as requ1r~d ~y Fundamental Rules and under the provmons of the C'onstttuhon of India" had been held · ti· ma~ter of allegations airninst him and that no adequate ~~po~: tumty had been afforded to him of defending himself or of show- [1971 J 3 S.C.R. ing cause against the action proposed to l:Je taken. He also raised the question of the order being vitiated by mala fides. In the written statement filed by the Union of India it was stated that the appellant had been appoined as a Labour Supervisor in he Extra Temporary Establishment by the COO/Ordnance Officer Incharge, Ammunition Depot, Kasubeg:u under the authority of Financial Regulations, India, Part I, Volume 25 and not By the Governor General.

It was pleaded, inter a!ia, that it was decided by the Government of India vide Army Headquarter's letter dated May, 25, 1951 to terminate the services py serving one month's notice. Consequently a notice of discharge froni the service was given to him by the Ordnance Officer, Administration, who was competent to serve the notice on him under the authority of the Army Order No. 1202/ 1943. react in conjunction with Financial Regulations refered to before. The sole material issue which was framed was wh-~ther the order dated May 26, · 1951 removing the appellant from 'ervice. was illegal, wrong, void, ultra vires and inoperative. The trial judge held that Art. 311 of the Constitution was applicable to the case of the appellant and that his removal had not been . ordered by the appointing authority. The suit was decreed. respondent preferred an appeal which was decided by the Additional District Judge, Delhi. It was held by him that Art. 31 I was not applicable to the appelant as he held a post connected with defence.

According to the learned judge the. ar?ellanfs services were terminated under Rule 5 of the Civi!ians·in Defence (Temporary Services) Rules, 1949, hereinafter called the 'Rules'. It was found that the order terminating the services had been passed by the proper authority. The appeal was allowecl and the suit was dismissed. !he appellant appealed to the High Court which was dismissed. His appeal was heard along with certain other appeals in which similar points were involved. It was found that the s'alary of the appellant was paid ou:t cf the esiimates of the Mnistry of Defence and he was intimately connected with the defence of the country not as a combatant but as a person holding a post the object of which was exclusively to serve the Military Department.

In the opinion of the High Court Articles 309 and 310 were applicable to the case of the appellant but Article 311 was inapplicable. ·On the question whether the services of the appellant were terminated without complying with the rules the High Court expressed the view that the breach of such rules did not give the aggrieved party a right to go to the court . Reliance in that connection was placed on the decision of the· Privy Council in R. Venkatarao v. I I LEKH RAJ v. UNION (Grover,/.) Secretary of State(1) .aaid certain other cases in which that decision was followed. In the case of the appellant the only other pOint which appears to have appear to have been argued on his be· half and which was decided by the High Court related to the allegation of mala fides. The decision went against him on that point. The question whether the case of the appellant was governed by Art. 311 of the Constitution stands concluded by two decisions of this court. In Jagatrai Mahinchand Ajwani v. Union of lndia( 2 ) it was held that an Engineer in the Military Service who was drawing hise salary from the Defence Estimates could not claim the protection of Art. 311 (2) of the Constitution.

In that case also the appellant was found to have held a post connected with Defence as in the present case. This decision was followed in S. P. Behl v. Union of India('): Both these decisions fully cover the case of the appellant so far as the applicability of Art. 311 is concerned. Learned counsel for the appellant sought to argue that since the appellant was admittedly governed by the rules which framed under s. 241(2) of the Government of India Act 1935 he was entitled to the protection of s. 240 of that Act. Chapter I of Part 10 of that Act related to the Defence Services. According to ss. 238, 235, 236 and 237 were applicable to persons who not being members of His Majest's Forces held or had held posts in India connected with the equipment or administration of those forces or otherwise connected with Defence as they applied in relation to persons who were or had been members of those forces. Section 240, to the extent it is material was in the following terms:- "240( 1)

Except as expressly provided by thi~ Act, every person who is a member of ! a civil service of the Crown in India, or holds any civil post under the Crown in India, holds office during His Majesty's pleasure. (2) No such person as aforesaid shall be dismissed from the service of His Majesty by any authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed. ( 3) No such person as aforesaid shall be dismissed or reduced in rank until he has been given a reasonable opportunity or showing cause against the aciion proposed to be taken in regard to him : (I) AJ.R. (1937) P.C:. 31. (3) C. A 1918 of 1966 dt. 8-3-68. 14-LI IOOSup.CI/72 (2) C. A. 1185 of 1965 dt. 6-2-67. Provided .............. " Section 241 provided for recruitment and conditions of service.

On behalf of the appellant it was .contended that since· his conditions of service were governed by the rules which were framed under the above section, s.240 was clearly applicable and his services could not h\lve been terminated in terms of subs. (2) of that section by any authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed nor could he be dismissed or reduced in rank until he had been given a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the action proposed to' be taken in regard to him. At no stage of the proceedings in the courts below the appellant relied on s. 240 of the Government of India Act and rightly so because the order of his discharge or termination of service was made after the Constitution had come into force. It was apparently for that reason that protection was sought from Art 311 and not s. 240 of the Government of India Act 1935.

We see no reason or .iustification in the present case for determinil))l; whether a person holding a civilian post which is 'Connect(!(} with the defence and for which he is paid salary and emolmnents .from the Defence Estimates would be governed by the .provisions of section 240 of the Government of India Act if the provisions of that Act were not applicable to the case of such a servant. The next question is whether rule 5 of the Rules was applicable and whether the appel!ant could claim the benefi\ of that rule. It provided, inter-alia, that the service of a temporary :;..,vemment servant who is not in quasi-permanent service shall be liable to termination at any time by notice in writing given either by the government servant to the appointing authority or by the appointing authority to the government servant.

The view of the High Court that the rules were not justiciable cannot be sustained as the decision of the Privy Council in Venkatarao's case (supra) and the other cases following that view have not been accepted as laying down the law correctly by this court. It has been held that the breach of a statutory rule in relation to the conditions of service would entitle the government servant to have recourse to the court for redress; vide The State of Uttar Pradesh & Others v. Ajodhya Prasad(I) and State of Mysore v. M. H. Bellary( 2 ). Now Exhibit P. 3 which is a letter dated May 26, 1951 and which was produced by the appellant himself shows that one mon.th:s n~tice of discharge was given by the Ordnance Officer, AdnuRIStration, under instructions received from the Army Headquarters. <:opy of another letter Exht. P-2 dated May 27, 1951 was pro- -<iuced according to which it had been decided by the Government (I) [PSI] 2 S.C.R.671. (2) [1964] 7 S.C.R.471. I ·-~--Iit LEKH RAJ v. UNION (Grover, 1.) of India that the services of the appellant be terminated by giving him one month's notice.

It is true that the original of that let•er was not produced although it had been summoned by the appellant. It is at least clear that the Ordnance Officer, Administration, had served the notice of discharge under instructions from the Army Headquarters. In this view of the matter there is no substance in the contention raised on behalf of the appellant that the order of discharge had not been made by . the appointing authority. At any rate before the High Court there was no challenge to the finding of the learned District Judge on the point and a question of fact cannot be allowed to be reopened at this stage. The learned counsel for the appellant attempted to reopen the findiiilg on the question of mala fides and also invoked the rule of natural justice in so far as the appellant had not been afforded any opportunity of showing cause against his discharge or tennination of services.

In the appeal before this Court the finding on the point of ma/a fides mu&t be accepted as final and the appellant cannot be allowed to reagitate that matter. As regards the appli· cability of the rule of natural justice it has not been shown to us how under the general law of master and servant, in the absence of any protection conferred by Article 311 of the Constitution such a rule can be invoked. The appeal fails and it is dismissed but in view of the cir· cumstances we leave the parties to bear their own costs in this Court. R.K.P.S. Appeal dismissed.