R. Saravanan v. Periyar University rep by its Registrar

Constitution of India, Arts. 226 and 311; Letters Patent of the Madras High Court, Cl. 15; Tamil Nadu Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1955, Rr. 17(g) and 19; Statutes of Periyar University, Ch. VIII, Cl. (13)

A Deputy Registrar of Periyar University was removed from service after a one-man inquiry commission held three charges proved. The first was that he “could have” influenced the grant of affiliation to his wife’s college. The second was that he really owned a house in his mother’s name, because he repaid the home loan as a co-obligant. The third was that he bought a Santro car without the University’s permission. A Single Judge of the Madras High Court set the removal aside as based on no evidence. A Division Bench, in a Letters Patent appeal, re-appreciated the evidence and restored it. The Supreme Court restored the Single Judge’s decision. The inquiry itself was valid, but the findings were conjecture: guilt was pronounced without evidence, and the burden was wrongly placed on the employee. A finding with no evidence behind it is perverse and an error of law correctable by certiorari; that is not reappraisal of evidence. The availability of a departmental appeal did not bar the writ. A Letters Patent Bench may review findings of fact, but it should be slow to disturb the writ Court’s discretion and may interfere only for a glaring, outcome-changing error. It cannot interfere merely because it holds a different view.