Supreme Court in the case of Allahabad Bank & Ors. v. Krishna Narayan
Tewari [Civil Appeal No.7600 of 2014], it was held that the though “it is true that a
writ court is very slow in interfering with the findings of facts recorded by a
Departmental Authority on the basis of evidence available on record”, “but it is
equally true that in a case where the Disciplinary Authority records a finding that is
unsupported by any evidence whatsoever or a finding which no reasonable person
could have arrived at, the writ court would be justified if not duty bound to examine
the matter and grant relief in appropriate cases. The writ court will certainly interfere
with disciplinary enquiry or the resultant orders passed by the competent authority
on that basis if the enquiry itself was vitiated on account of violation of principles of
natural justice, as is alleged to be the position in the present case. Non-application
of mind by the Enquiry Officer or the Disciplinary Authority, non-recording of reasons
in support of the conclusion arrived at by them are also grounds on which the writ
courts are justified in interfering with the orders of punishment.”
It was further held that “in cases where the High Court finds the enquiry to be
deficient either procedurally or otherwise the proper course always is to remand the
matter back to the concerned authority to redo the same afresh. That course could
have been followed even in the present case. The matter could be remanded back
to the Disciplinary Authority or to the Enquiry Officer for a proper enquiry and a fresh
report and order. But that course may not have been the only course open in a given
situation. There may be situations where because of a long time lag or such other
supervening circumstances the writ court considers it unfair, harsh or otherwise
unnecessary to direct a fresh enquiry or fresh order by the competent authority.”[2017]
