Case: Bongaigaon Refinery &amp; P.C. Ltd Vs. Girish Chandra Sarmah

2. Aggrieved against the order of reversion passed in a disciplinary proceeding on 20.9.2002, the respondent filed a writ petition in the Guwahati High Court and submitted that the domestic inquiry which had been conducted against him and which has found him guilty was perverse and totally illegal3. The respondent while working as Deputy General Manager) in Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Dhaligaon during the year9 was alleged to have committed serious misconduct for which he was. The following charges were framed against him which read as under:Sri G.C.Sarma dishonestly selected and recommended purchase of land at Jorabat on the ground of ecomonic viability. As a Member in the price negotiating committee, he failed to assess the reasonable price of the land inasmuch as he himself intimated the price of 7 acres of land at Rs.30 lakhs in his preliminary reportSri G.C.Sarma appointed the Valuer Sri I. Sharma for land valuation violating the due process of tendering and that the fictitious price fixed by the Valuer at Rs.25/per sq.ft. was acceptedSri I.Sharma who floated the firm M/s. ESS Pvt. Ltd., was engaged without process of tendering for determination of soil and rock strata as recommended by Sri G.C.Sarma. The report submitted by Sri I.Sharma was fictitious and misconceived as the land being hilly, rocky and undeveloped was recommended to be suitable for the outlet. Sri G.C.Sarma in connivance with Sri I.Sharma thereby dishonestly recommended the land as suitableOn the basis of these charges a regular inquiry was initiated against the respondent and Shri N.C.Barua, retired District & Sessions Judge, Bongaigaon was appointed as Inquiring Authority. The Inquiry Officer submitted his report on 6.6.2002 finding all the three charges to have been proved against the respondent. Thereafter, the disciplinary authority gave a notice and after hearing the respondent passed the aforesaid impugned order. Aggrieved against this order the respondent filed a writ petition before the Guwahati High Court. Learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition. Aggrieved against that order the respondent preferred a writ appeal before the Division Bench. The Division Bench allowed the writ appeal of the respondent, set aside the order of learned Single Judge and quashed the order of the disciplinary authority imposing the aforesaid punishment. Hence the present appeal.

Court's reasoning:
9. Learned Additional Solicitor General has submitted that since learned counsel for thet petitioner has already abandoned the plea of perversity i.e. that the finding is perverse, the same is not open for learned counsel for the respondent writ petitioner to press again before the Division Bench of the High Court. Since the writ appeal is in continuation of the original order passed in the writ jurisdiction by learned Single Judge, it cannot operate as an estoppel against learned counsel for the respondent to press the same. If the finding recorded by the Inquiring Officer is not sound and it relates to perversity then the appellate court in writ appeal cannot estop the counsel from raising the same. More so, the Division Bench after considering the matter has found that the whole approach was perverse because the respondent alone has been made a scapegoat. When the decision of all the three committees was unanimous, then to take one and put the entire blame on him is definitely perverse approach and the Court cannot stand to the technicalities so as to defeat the ends of justice. Thus, the submission of learned Additional Solicitor General has no merit.