Case: Apparel Export Promotion Council Vs. A.K. Chopra

3. The respondent was working as a Private Secretary to the Chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council, the appellant herein. It was alleged that on 12.8.1988, he tried to molest a woman employee of the Council, Miss X (name withheld by us) who was at the relevant time working as a Clerk-cum-Typist. She was not competent or trained to take dictations. The respondent, however, insisted that she go with him to the Business Centre at Taj Palace Hotel for taking dictation from the Chairman and type out the matter. Under the pressure of the respondent, she went to take the dictation from the Chairman. While Mis X was waiting for the Director in the room, the respondent tried to sit too close to her and despite her objection did not give up his objectionable behaviour. She later on took dictation from the Director. The respondent told her to type it at the Business Centre of the Taj Hotel, which is located in the Basement of the Hotel. He offered to help her so that her typing was not found fault with by the Director. He volunteered to show her the Business Centre for getting the matter typed and taking advantage of the isolated place, again tried to sit close to her and touch her despite her objections. The draft typed matter was corrected by Director (Finance) who asked Miss X to retype the same. The respondent again went with her to the Business Centre and repeated his overtures. Miss X told the respondent that she would "leave the place if he continued to behave like that". The respondent did not stop. Though he went out from the Business Centre for a while, he again came back and resumed his objectionable acts. According to Miss X, the respondent had tried to molest her physically in the lift also while coming to the basement but she saved herself by pressing the emergency button, which made the door of the lift to open. On the next day, that is on 16th August, 1988 Miss X was unable to meet the Director (Personnel) for lodging her complaint against the respondent as he was busy. She succeeded in meeting him only on 17th August, 1988 and apart from narrating the whole incident to him orally submitted a written complaint also. The respondent was placed under suspension vide an order dated 18th August, 1988. A charge-sheet was served on him to which he gave a reply denying the allegations and asserting that "the allegations were imaginary and motivated". Shri J.D. Giri, a Director of the Council, was appointed as an Enquiry Officer to enquire into the charges framed against the respondent. On behalf of the management with a view to prove the charges as many as six witnesses were examined including Miss X. The respondent also examined seven witnesses. The Enquiry Officer after considering the documentary and oral evidence and the circumstances of the case arrived at the conclusion that the respondent had acted against moral sanctions and that his acts against Miss X did not withstand the test of decency and modesty. He, therefore, held the charges levelled against the respondent asIntentions of Shri A.K. Chopra were ostensibly manifested in his actions and behaviour; Despite reprimands from Miss X he continued to act against moral sanctions;8.2 Dictation and subsequent typing of the matter provided Shri A.K. Chopra necessary opportunity to take Miss X to the Business Centre a secluded place. Privacy in the Business Centre room made his ulterior motive explicit and clear.8.3. Any other conclusion on technical niceties which Shri A.K. Chopra tried to purport did not withstand the test of decency and modesty.The Enquiry Officer concluded that Miss X was molested by the respondent at Taj Palace Hotel on 12th August, 1988 and that the respondent had tried to touch her person in the Business Centre with ulterior motives despite reprimands by her. The Disciplinary Authority agreeing with the report of the Enquiry Officer, imposed the penalty of removing him from service with immediate effect on 28th June, 1989.6. Aggrieved, by an order of removal from service, the respondent filed a departmental appeal before the Staff Committee of the appellant. It appears that there was some difference of opinion between the Members of the Staff Committee and the Chairman of the Staff Committee during the hearing, but before any decision could be arrived at by the Staff Committee, the respondent, on the basis of some unconfirmed minutes of the Staff Committee meeting, filed a Writ Petition in the High Court inter alia challenging his removal from service. On January 30, 1992, the Writ Petition was allowed and respondent Nos. 1 and 3, therein, were directed to act upon the decision of the Staff Committee, assuming as if the decision, as alleged, had been taken at the 34th Meeting of the Staff Committee on 25th July, 1990. The appellant challenged the judgment and order of the High Court dated 30th January, 1992, through Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 3204 of 1992 in this Court. While setting aside the judgment and order of the High Court dated 30th January, 1992, a Division Bench of this Court opinedhave been taken through the proceedings of the meeting starting from 33th meeting upto 38th meeting by both the learned Counsel appearing for the respective parties. Considering the same it appears to us that the alleged decision taken on the said Agenda No. 5 in the 33rd and 34th meeting is in dispute and final decision on the same has not yet been taken and the alleged resolution on the said Item No. 5 still awaits ratification. In that view of the matter, the High Court was wrong in deciding the disputed question of fact in favour of Respondent No. 1. We, therefore, set aside the impugned order of the Delhi High Court as according to us the final decision on the resolution taken on the said Agenda No. 5 has not yet been finally ratified. We are not inclined to consider the other questions sought to be raised in this appeal and the said questions are kept open. In view of the pendency of the matter for a long time, we direct the appellant-company to convene the meeting of Staff Committee as early as practicable but not exceeding two months from today so that the question of ratification of the resolution on the said Agenda No. 5 taken in the meeting of the Staff Committee is finally decided.Pursuant to the above directions, the Staff Committee met again and considered the entire issue and came to the conclusion that the order passed by the Director General terminating the services of the respondent on 28th June, 1989 was legal, proper and valid. The appeal was dismissed and the removal of the respondent for causing "sexual harassment" to Miss X was upheld. The respondent, thereupon, filed Writ Petition No. 352 of 1995 in the High Court, challenging his removal from service as well as the decision of the Staff Committee dismissing his departmental appeal.8. The learned Single Judge allowing the Writ Petition opined "that ... the petitioner tried to molest and not that the petitioner had in fact molested the complainant." The learned Single Judge, therefore, disposed of the Writ Petition with a direction that `the respondent be reinstated in service but that he would not be entitled to receive any back wages. The appellant was directed to consider the period between the date of removal of the respondent from service and the date of reinstatement as the period spent on duty and to give him consequential promotion and all other benefits. It was, however, directed that the respondent be posted in any other office outside Delhi, at least for a period of two years.9. The appellant being aggrieved by the order of reinstatement filed Letters Patent Appeal No. 27 of 1997 before the Division Bench of the High Court. The respondent also filed Letters Patent Appeal No. 79 of 1997 claiming "back wages and appropriate posting". Some of the lady employees of the appellant on coming to know about the judgment of the learned Single Judge, directing the reinstatement of the respondent felt agitated and filed an application seeking intervention in the pending L.P.A. The Division Bench vide judgment and order dated 15th July, 1997, dismissed the L.P.A. filed by the appellant against the reinstatement of the respondent. The Division Bench agreed with the findings recorded by the learned Single Judge that the respondent had "tried" to molest and that he had not "actually molested" Miss X and that he had "not managed" to make the slightest physical contact with the lady and went on to hold that such an act of the respondent was not a sufficient ground for his dismissal from service. Commenting upon the evidence, the Division Bench observedhave been taken in detail through the evidence/deposition of Miss X. No part of that evidence discloses that A.K. Chopra even managed to make the slightest physical contact with the lady. The entire deposition relates that A.K. Chopra tried to touch her.As we have said that no attempts made, allegedly by A.K. Chopra, succeeded in making physical contact with Miss X, even in the narrow confines of a Hotel `lift.To our mind, on such evidence as that was produced before the Enquiry Officer, it is not even possible to come to a conclusion that there is an "attempt to molest" as there have been no physical contract. There being no physical contact between A.K. Chopra and Miss X there cannot be any attempt to "tried to molest" on the part of A.K.ours).10. Aggrieved by the judgment of the Division Bench, the employer-appellant has filed this appeal by special leave.

Reasoning: 15. The High Court appears to have over-looked the settled position that in departmental proceedings, the disciplinary Authority is the sole Judge of facts and in case an appeal is presented to the Appellate Authority, the Appellate Authority has also the power and jurisdiction to re-appreciate the evidence and come to its own conclusion, on facts, being the sole fact finding authorities. Once findings of fact, based on appreciation of evidence are recorded, the High Court in Writ Jurisdiction may not normally interfere with those factual findings unless it finds that the recorded findings were based either on no evidence or that the findings were wholly, perverse and/or legally untenable. The adequacy or inadequacy of the evidence is not permitted to be canvassed before the High Court. Since, the High Court does not sit as an Appellate Authority, over the factual findings recorded during departmental proceedings, while exercising the power of judicial review, the High Court cannot normally speaking substitute its own conclusion, with regard to the guilt of the delinquent, for that of the departmental authorities. Even insofar as imposition of penalty or punishment is concerned, unless the punishment or penalty imposed by the Disciplinary or the Departmental Appellate Authority, is either impermissible or such that it shocks the conscience of the High Court, it should not normally substitute its own opinion and impose some other punishment or penalty. Both the learned Single Judge and the Division Bench of the High Court, it appears, ignored the well-settled principles that even though Judicial Review of administrative action must remain flexible and its dimension not closed, yet the Court in exercise of the power of judicial review is not concerned with the correctness of the findings of fact on the basis of which the orders are made so long as those findings are reasonably supported by evidence and have been arrived at through proceedings which cannot be faulted with for procedural illegalities or irregularities which vitiate the process by which the decision was arrived at. Judicial Review, it must be remembered, is directed not against the decision, but is confined to the examination of the decision-making process.In the established facts and circumstances of this case, we have no hesitation to hold, at the outset, that both the learned Single Judge and the Division Bench of the High Court fell into patent error in interfering with findings of fact recorded by the departmental authorities and interfering with the quantum of punishment, as if the High Court was sitting in appellate jurisdiction. From the judgments of the learned Single Judge as well as the Division Bench, it is quite obvious that the findings with regard to an "unbecoming act" committed by the respondent, as found by the Departmental Authorities, were not found fault with even on re-appreciation of evidence. The High Court did not find that the occurrence as alleged by the complainant had not taken place. Neither the learned Single Judge nor the Division Bench found that findings recorded by the Enquiry Officer or the Departmental Appellate Authority were either arbitrary or even perverse. As a matter of fact, the High Court found no fault whatsoever with the conduct of Enquiry. The direction of the learned Single Judge to the effect that the respondent was not entitled to back wages and was to be posted outside the city for at least two years, which was upheld by the Division Bench, itself demonstrates that the High Court believed the complainants case fully for otherwise neither the withholding of backwages nor a direction to post the respondent outside the city for at least two years was necessary. The High Court in our opinion fell in error in interfering with the punishment, which could be lawfully imposed by the departmental authorities on the respondent for his proven misconduct. To hold that since the respondent had not "actually molested" Miss X and that he had only "tried to molest" her and had "not managed" to make physical contact with her, the punishment of removal from service was not justified was erroneous. The High Court should not have substituted its own discretion for that of the authority. What punishment was required to be imposed, in the facts and circumstances of the case, was a matter which fell exclusively within the jurisdiction of the competent authority and did not warrant any interference by the High Court. The entire approach of the High Court has been faulty. The impugned order of the High Court cannot be sustained on this ground alone. But there is another aspect of the case which is fundamental and goes to the root of the case and concerns the approach of the Court while dealing with cases of sexual harassment at the place of work of femaleHigh Court overlooked the ground realities and ignored the fact that the conduct of the respondent against his junior female employee, Miss X, was wholly against moral sanctions, decency and was offensive to her modesty. Reduction of punishment in a case like this is bound to have demoralizing effect on the women employees and is a retrograde step. There was no justification for the High Court to interfere with the punishment imposed by the departmental authorities. The act of the respondent was unbecoming of good conduct and behaviour expected from a superior officer and undoubtedly amounted to sexual harassment of Miss X and the punishment imposed by the appellant, was, thus, commensurate with the gravity of his objectionable behaviour and did not warrant any interference by the High Court in exercise of its power of judicialare afraid, it is too late in the day to show any sympathy to the respondent in such a case. Any lenient action in such a case is bound to have demoralizing effect on working women. Sympathy in such cases is uncalled for and mercy is misplaced.