Civil Appeal No 118 of 1957
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated January 31 1956 of the Circuit Bench of the Punjab High Court at Delhi in Civil Writ No 243 D of 1954
C K Daphtary Solicitor General of India R Ganapathy Iyer and R H Dhebar for the appellant
Purshottam Tricumdas T section Venkataraman and K R Chaud hury for the respondent
September 18
The following Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMA AIYARJ This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment and order of the High Court of Punjab in an application under article 226 of the Constitution setting aside an order dated September 16 1954 dismissing the respondent herein from Government service on the ground that it was in contravention of article 311 2 of the Consti tution
The respondent was at the material dates an Assistant Controller in the Commerce Department of the Union Govern ment
Sometime in the middle of March 1953 one Shri Bhan a representative of a Calcutta firm styled Messrs Gattulal Chhaganlal Joshi came to Delhi with a view to get the name of the firm removed from black list in which it had been placed and for that purpose he was contacting the officers in the Department
Information was given to Sri Tawakley an assistant in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Com plaints Branch that Sri Bhan was offering to give bribe for getting an order in his favour
He immediately reported the matter to the Special Police Establishment and they decided to lay a trap for him
Sri Bhan however was willing to pay the bribe only after an order in his favour had been made and communicated but he offered that he would get the respondent to stand as surety for payment by him
The police thereafter decided to set a trap for the respond ent and it war accordingly arranged that Sri 501 Tawakley should meet by appointment Sri Bhan and the respondent in the Kwality Restaurant in the evening on March 24 1953
The meeting took place as arranged and three members of the Special Police Establishment were present there incognito
Then there was a talk between Sri Tawak ley Sri Bhan and the respondent and it is the case of the appellant that during that talk an assurance was given by the respondent to Sri Tawakley that the amount would be paid by Sri Bhan
After the conversation was over when the respondent was about to depart one of the officers the Superintendent of Police disclosed his identity got from the respondent his identity card and initialled it and Sri Bhan also initialled it
On March 28 1953 the respondent received a notice from the Secretary to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry charging him with aiding and abetting Sri Bhan in offering illegal gratification to Sri Tawakley and attempting to induce Sri Tawakley to accept the gratification offered by Sri Bhan and in support of the charges there were detailed
allega tions relating to meetings between the respondent and Sri Tawakley on March 17 1953 on March 21 1953 a telephonic conversation with reference to the same matter later on that day and the meeting in the Kwality Restaurant already mentioned
The respondent was called upon to give his explanation to the charges and he was directed to state whether he wished to lead oral or documentary evidence in defence
The enquiry was delegated to Mt J Byrne Joint Chief Controller of Imports and Exports
On April 10 1953 the respondent submitted a detailed explanation denying that he met Sri Tawakley either on the 17th or on the 21st March or that there was any telephonic conversation that day with him and stating that the conversation which he had in the Kwality Restaurant on the 24th related to an insurance policy of his and had nothing to do with any bribe proposed to be offered by Sri Bhan
The respondent also asked for an oral enquiry and desired to examine Sri Bhan Sri Fateh Singh and Sri Jai Narayan in support of his version
On April 17 1953 Mc
Byrne gave notice to the 502 respondent that there would be an oral enquiry and pursuant thereto witnesses were examined on April 20 1953 and the following days and the hearing was concluded on April 27 1953
On July 281953 Mr Byrne submitted his report and there in he found that the charges against the respondent had been clearly established
On this a communication was issued to the respondent on August 29 1953 wherein he was informed that it was provisionally decided that he should be dismissed and asked to show cause against the proposed action
Along with the notice the whole of the report of Mr Byrne omitting his recommendations was sent
Oil September 11 1953 the respondent sent his explanation
Therein he again discussed at great length the evidence that had been adduced and submitted that the finding of guilt was not proper and that no action should be taken against him
He also complained in this explanation that the enquiry was vitiated by the fact that he had not been permitted to cross examine
the witnesses who gave evidence against him
The papers were then submitted to the Union Public Service Commission in accordance with article 320 and it sent its report on September 6 1954 that the charges were made out that there was no substance in the complaint of the respondent that he was not allowed to cross examine the witnesses and that he should be dismissed
The Presi dent
accepting the finding of the Enquiring Officer and the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission made an order on September 16 1954 that
the respondent should be dismissed from Government service
The respondent then filed the application out of which the present appeal arises in the High Court of Punjab for an appropriate writ to quash the order of dismissal dated September 16 1954 for the reason that there was no proper enquiry
As many as seven grounds were set forth in support of the Petition and of these the learned Judges held that three had been established
They held that the respondent had been denied an opportunity to cross examine witnesses who gave evidence in support of the charge that further 503 he was not allowed to make his own statement but wag merely cross examined by the Enquiring Officer and that likewise his witnesses were merely cross examined by the Officer without the respondent himself being allowed to examine them
These defects they observed amounted to a denial of reasonable opportunity to the respondent to show cause against his dismissal and that the order dated September 16 1954 which followed on such enquiry was bad as being in contravention of article 3112
In the result they set aside the order and directed him to be reinstated
The correctness of this order is challenged by the Solicitor General on two grounds  1 that the finding that the respondent had no reasonable opportunity afforded to him at the enquiry is not supported by the evidence and 2 that even if there was a defect in the enquiry that was a matter that could be set right in the stage following the show cause notice and as the respondent did not ask for an opportunity to cross examine the witnesses he could not be heard to urge that the order dated September 16 1954 was bad as contravening article 3112
At the very outset we have to observe that a writ petition under article 226 is not the appropriate proceeding for adjudi cation of disputes like the present
Under the law a person whose services have been wrongfully terminated is entitled to institute an action to vindicate his rights and in such an action the Court will be competent to award all the relief s to which he may be entitled including some which would not be admissible in a writ petition
It is well settled that when an alternative and equally effica cious remedy is open to a litigant he should be required to pursue that remedy and not invoke the special jurisdiction of the High Court to issue a prerogative writ
It is true that the existence of another remedy does not affect the jurisdiction of the Court to issue a writ but as observed by this Court in Raghid Ahmed vs Municipal Board Kairana 1  the existence of an adequate legal remedy is a thing to be taken into consideration in the matter of granting writs 
Vide also K section Rashid and i 504 Son vs The Income tax Investigation Commission And where such remedy exists it will be a sound exercise of discre tion to refuse to interfere in a petition under article 226 unless there are good grounds therefor
None such appears in the present case
On the other hand the point for determination in this petition whether the respondent was denied a reasonable opportunity to present his case turns mainly on the question whether he was prevented from cross examining the witnesses who gave evidence in support of the charge
That is a question on which there is a serious dispute which cannot be satisfactorily decided without taking evidence
It is not the practice of Courts to decide questions of that character in a writ petition and it would have been a proper exercise of discretion in the present case if the learned Judges had referred the respondent to a suit
In this appeal we should have ourselves adopted that course and passed the order which the learned Judges should have passed
But we feel pressed by the fact that the order dismissing the respondent having been made on September 16 1954 an action to set it aside would now be timebarred
As the High Court has gone into the matter on the merits we propose to dispose of this appeal on a consideration of the merits
The main ground on which the respondent attacked the order dated September 16 1954 was that at the enquiry held by Mr Byrne he was not given an opportunity to cross examine the witnesses who deposed against him and that the find ings reached at such enquiry could not be accepted
But the question is whether that allegation has been made out
In para
7 of his petition the respondent stated   Despite repeated verbal requests of the petitioner the inquiry Officer did not permit him to crossexamine any wit ness who deposed against him But this was contradicted by Mr Byrne who filed a counter affidavit in which he stated  4 That it is incorrect that no opportunity was given to the petitioner at the time of the oral enquiry 1   747 505 to cross examine the witnesses who had deposed against the petitioner
5 That all witnesses were examined in petitioner s presence and he was asked by me at the end of each examina tion whether he had any questions to put
6 That the petitioner only put questions to one witness Shri P Govindan Nair and to others he did not
 On this affidavit Mr Byrne was examined in Court and he repeated these allegations and added  I have distinct recollection that I asked Shri T R Varma to put questions in cross examination to witnesses
 It was elicited in the course of his further examination that he did not make any note that he asked Shri T R Varma to put questions in cross examination to witnesses and that that might have been due to a slip on his part
We have thus before us two statements one by Mr Byrne and the other by the respondent and they are in flat contradic tion of each other
The question is which of them is to be accepted
When there is a dispute as to what happened before a court or tribunal the statement of the Presiding Officer in regard to it is generally taken to be correct and there is no reason why the statement of Mr Byrne should not be accepted as true
He was admittedly an officer hold ing a high position and it is not suggested that there was any motive for him to give false evidence
There are more over features in the record which clearly show that the statement of Mr Byrne must be correct
The examination of witnesses began on April 201953 and four witnesses were examined on that date among them being Sri C B Tawakley
If as stated by the respondent he asked for permission to crossexamine witnesses and that was refused it is surpris ing that he should not have put the complaint in writing on the subsequent dates on which the enquiry was continued
To one of the witnesses Sri
P Govindan Nair he did actual ly put a question in cross examination and it is difficult to reconcile this 506 with his statement that permission had been refused to cross examine the previous witnesses
A reading of the deposition of the witnesses shows that the Enquiring Officer himself had put searching questions and elicited all rele vant facts
It is not suggested that there was any specific matter in respect of which cross examination could have been but was not directed
We think it likely that the respond ent did not cross examine the witnesses because there was nothing left for him to cross examine
The learned Judges gave two reasons for accepting the statement of the re spondent in preference to that of Mr Byrne
One is that there was no record made in the depositions of the witnesses that there was no cross examination
But what follows from this That in fact there was no cross examination which is a fact not that the request of the respondent to cross examine was disallowed
Then again the learned Judges say that the respondent was present at the hearing of the writ petition before them that they put questions to him and formed the opinion that he was sufficiently intelligent and that it was difficult to believe that he would not have cross examined the witnesses
We are of opinion that this was a consideration which ought not to have been taken into account in a judicial determination of the question and that it should have been wholly excluded
On a considera tion of the record and of the probabilities we accept the statement of Mr Byrne as true and hold that the respondent was not refused permission to cross examine the witnesses and that the charge that the enquiry was defective for this reason cannot be sustained
The respondent attacked the enquiry on two other grounds which were stated by him in his petition in the following terms C That the petitioner was cross examined and was not enabled to make an  oral statement on his own behalf
D That the defence witnesses were not given an opportuni ty to tell their own version or to be examined by the peti tioner as their depositions were confined 507 to answers in reply to questions put by the Inquiry Officer
 In substance the charge is that the respondent and his witnesses should have been allowed to give their evidence by way of examination in chief and that only thereafter the officer should have cross examined them but that he took upon himself to cross examine them from the very start and had thereby violated well recognised rules of procedure
There is also a complaint that the respondent was not al lowed to put questions to them
Now it is no doubt true that the evidence of the respondent and his witnesses was not taken in the mode prescribed in the Evidence Act but that Act has no application to en quiries conducted by tribunals even though they may be judicial in character
The law requires that such tribunals should observe rules of natural justice in the conduct of the enquiry and if they do so their decision is not liable to be impeached on the ground that the procedure followed was not in accordance with that which obtains in a Court of law
Stating it broadly and without intending it to be exhaustive it may be observed that rules of natural justice require that a party should have the opportunity of adducing all relevant evidence on which he relies that the evidence of the opponent should be taken in his presence and that he should be given the opportunity of cross examining the witnesses examined by that party and that no materials should be relied on against him without his being given an opportunity of explaining them
If these rules are satis fied the enquiry is not open to attack on the ground that the procedure laid down in the Evidence Act for taking evidence was not strictly followed
Vide the recent deci sion of this Court in New Prakash Transport Co vs New Suwarna Transport Co 1 where this question is discussed
We have examined the record in the light of the above prin ciples and find that there has been no violation of the principles of natural justice
The 1 65 508 witnesses have beenexamined at great length and have spoken to all relevant facts bearing on the question and it is not suggested that there is any other matter on which they could have spoken
We do not accept the version of the respondent that he was not allowed to put any questions to the witnesses Indeed the evidence of Sri Jai Narayan at p 188 of the Paper Book shows that the only question on which the respondent wished this witness to testify was put to him by Mr Byrne
The evidence of Sri Bhan and Sri Fateh Singh was it should be noted wholly in support of the respondent
The findings of Mr Byrne are based entirely on an appreciation of the oral evidence taken in the presence of the respondent
It should also be mentioned that the respondent did not put forward these grounds of complaint in his explanation dated September 11 1953 and we are satis fied that they are wholly without substance and are an afterthought
We accordingly hold differing from the learned Judges of the Court below that the enquiry before Mr Byrne was not defective that the respondent had full opportunity of placing his evidence before him and that he did avail himself of the same
 In this view it becomes unnecessary to express any opinion on the second question which was raised by the learned Solicitor General
In the result we allow the appeal set aside the order of the Court below and dismiss the writ application
There will be no order as to costs
Appeal allowed


Summary:
The respondent was dismissed from service under the Govern ment of India in pursuance of an enquiry held under article 311 of the Constitution of India
He filed an application in the High Court under article 226 to quash the order of dismiss al on the grounds inter alia that in the enquiry the evi dence of the respondent and his witnesses was not taken in the mode prescribed by the Indian Evidence Act and that as a result
he was not given a reasonable opportunity as re quired under article 3112
It was found that though the procedure laid down in that Act was not strictly followed the respondent was given a full opportunity of placing his evidence before the Enquiring Officer
Held  1 Petitions under article 226 of the Constitution should not generally be entertained by the High Courts where an alternative and equally efficacious remedy is available
It is not the practice of Courts to decide in a writ peti tion disputed questions which cannot be satisfactorily decided without taking evidence
Rashid Ahmed vs Munsicipal Board Kairana  and K section Rashid and Son vs The Income tax Investigation Commission   relied on
2 Tile Indian Evidence Act has no application to en quiries conducted by tribunals
The law only requires that tribunals should observe rules of natural justice such as that a party should have the opportunity of adducing all relevant evidence on which he relies that the evidence of the opponent should be taken in his presence and that he should be given the opportunity of cross examining the witnesses examined by that party and that no materials should be relied on against him without his being given an opportunity of explaining them
If these rules are satis fied then the enquiry is not open to attack on the ground that the procedure laid down in the Indian Evidence Act for taking evidence was not strictly followed
New Prakash Transport Co vs New Suwarna Transport Co  followed 64 500