130. Knowledge Spectrum – Discipline Charge Sheet - 46
127. What is the time limit for issue of charge sheet?
Manual (Ed 2005) is one month from the date of receipt of CVC's advice and two months from the date of receipt of investigation report.
128. Is there any time limit between the occurrence of the misconduct and the issue of charge sheet?
There is no time limit between the commission of misconduct and the issue of charge sheet in respect of serving employees. The time limit in this respect regarding the retired employees is dealt with in the relevant chapter later). However, Unexplained in-ordinate delays may have the effect of vitiating the inquiry. Hon'ble Supreme Court struck down the proceedings, in the case of P.V. Mahadevan Vs. M.D., Tamil Nadu Housing Board [JT2005(7)SC417, [2005]Supp(2) SCR474, 2006(1)SLJ67) relating to the issue of a Charge Sheet in 2000 in respect of the alleged misconduct committed in 1990,
"16. Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that allowing the respondent to proceed further with the departmental proceedings at this distance of time will be very prejudicial to the appellant. Keeping a higher government official under charges of corruption and disputed integrity would cause unbearable mental agony and distress to the officer concerned. The protracted disciplinary enquiry against a government employee should, therefore, be avoided not only in the interests of the government employee but in public interest and also in the interests of inspiring confidence in the minds of the government employees. At this stage, it is necessary to draw the
enough and more on account of the disciplinary proceedings. As a matter of fact, the mental agony and sufferings of the appellant due to the protracted disciplinary proceedings would be much more than the punishment. For the mistakes committed by the department in the procedure for initiating the disciplinary proceedings, the appellant should not be made to suffer.
17. We, therefore, have no hesitation to quash the charge memo issued against the appellant. The appeal is allowed. The appellant will be entitled to all the retiral benefits in accordance with law. The retiral benefits shall be disbursed within three months from this date. No costs."
129. What is the effect of delay on the validity of the proceedings?
Delay may be of two types - delay in issue of charge sheet and secondly, delay in the conduct of proceedings. Hon'ble Central Administrative Tribunal (Principal Bench) in its decision dated 23.4.2010, in Ashish Abrol, Joint Commissioner of Income Tax Vs. Union of India (UOI) through The Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue and Director General of Income Tax (Vigilance) [MANU/CA/0171/2010] analysed a number of decisions on the subject and clarified the position in the following paragraph:
16. The sum and substance of the judgments is that:
the competent authority should be able to give an explanation for the inordinate delay in issuing the Memorandum of Charge, the charges should be of such serious nature, the investigation of which would take a long time and would have to be pursued secretly; the nature of charges would be such as to take a long time to detect such as embezzlement and fabrication of false records,
if the alleged misconduct is grave and a large number of documents and statement of witnesses had to be looked into, delay can be considered to be valid; the Court has to consider the nature of charge, its complexity and on what account the delay has occurred; how long a delay is too long always depends on the facts of the given case; if the delay is likely to cause prejudice to the Charged Officer in defending himself, the enquiry has to be interdicted; and the Court should weigh the factors appearing for and against the disciplinary proceedings and take a decision on the totality of circumstances. In other words, the Court has to indulge in the process of balancing.
As seen above, issue of charge sheet is the discharge of the constitutional obligation – to inform the employee of the charges. The charge sheet therefore needs to be employee. It may either be served in person or sent to the supervisory officer of the employee concerned for service or sent by registered post.
Hon'ble Supreme Court in Delhi Development Authority vs H.C. Khurana (1993 AIR 1488, 1993 SCR (2)1033] has interpreted the term 'issue of charge sheet' in the following manner in the context of the applicability of the sealed cover procedure: :
“The issue of a chargesheet, therefore, means its despatch to the government servant, and this act is complete the moment steps are taken for the purpose, by framing the chargesheet and despatching it to the government servant, the further fact of its actual service on the government servant not being a necessary part of its requirement. This is the sense in which the word 'issue' was used in the expression 'chargesheet has already been issued to the employee', in para 17 of the decision in Jankiraman."
However, in the case of Union of India Vs. Dinanath Shataram Karekar & Ors, [1998 SCC (L&S) 1837), the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide its judgment dated 30/07/1998 had held that charge sheet dispatched by registered post and received back with the postal endorsement "not found” does not amount to issue of charge sheet and set aside the order dated 19 Aug 1985 holding,
"It has already been found that neither the charge-sheet nor the show-cause notices were ever served upon the original respondent, Dinanath Shantaram Karekar. Consequently, the entire proceedings were vitiated."
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