Case: Lav Nigam Vs. Chairman &amp; MD, ITI Ltd. and Another

3. The departmental proceedings were initiated against the appellant. The inquiry officer exonerated the appellant by his report dated7 in respect of all three articles of charges.  4. The disciplinary authority passed an order on7 in which he stated:  "Thus, after careful consideration of the evidence which has been produced for substantiating the charges one and two, the undersigned has provisionally come to the conclusion that Shri Lav Nigam, St. No. 247(o) is not a fit person to be retained in the services of the company and that a major penalty should be imposed on Shri Lav Nigam and accordingly proposes to impose on him the penalty of removal under R.25(f) of the Conduct, Discipline and Appeal Rules, 1975 of the ITI Ltd. Now, therefore, Shri Lav Nigam is hereby given an opportunity of making representation on the penalty proposed above. Any representation which he may wish to make against the penalty proposed will be considered by the undersigned. If any should be made in writing and submitted so as to reach the undersigned not later than 15 days from the date of receipt of this show cause notice by Shri Lav Nigam."  5. The three articles of charges were set out by the disciplinary authority who also recorded in the body of the order that two of the three charges had been proved. The order concludes with the finding:  "This is a serious misconduct on the part of Shri Lav Nigam, an executive of manager level of a public sector undertaking company."  6. It also records that the disciplinary authority had provisionally come to the conclusion that the appellant was not a fit person to be retained in the service of the company and that a major penalty of removal should be imposed under R.25(f). The appellant was given an opportunity of making representation in respect of the penalty proposed as we have noted above.  7. The appellant responded to the show cause notice.  8. By an order dated8 the appellant was removed from service.  9. Challenging the orders of the respondent authorities the appellant filed a writ petition before the High Court. The appellant specifically raised the issue that the disciplinary authority was obliged to give a separate show cause notice if the disciplinary authority differed with the inquiry officer. The High Court also held that there was no need to give two separate show cause notices one before the disciplinary authority found against the employee while differing with the view of the inquiry officer, and another against the proposed punishment. It was further held that the two notices could be combined in one. The writ petition was accordingly dismissed.

Reasoning:
10. The conclusion of the High Court was contrary to the consistent view taken by this Court that in case the disciplinary authority differs with the view taken by the inquiry officer, he is bound to give a notice setting out his tentative conclusions to the appellant. It is only after hearing the appellant that the disciplinary authority would at all arrive at a final finding of guilt. Thereafter, the employee would again have to be served with a notice relating to the punishment proposed13. We have already quoted the extracts from the show cause notice issued by the disciplinary authority. It is clear that no notice at all was given before the disciplinary authority recorded its final conclusions differing with the finding of fact of the inquiry officer. The notice to show cause was merely a show cause against the proposed punishment. In view of the long line of authorities, the decision of the High Court cannot be sustained.