Conduct & Disciplinary Rules - 72 : Article from Mr. K.V.Shridharan, Ex General Secretary, AIPEU Group C

 Conduct & Disciplinary Rules - 72 : Article from Mr. K.V.Shridharan, Ex General Secretary, AIPEU Group C

Conduct & Disciplinary Rules – 72

CCS Rules & Principles of Natural justice 

1.    Rules of Natural Justice - Scope not unlimited

The scope of the Rules of Natural Justice is not unlimited.

The Rules of Natural Justice should not be stretched too far. Only too often the people have done wrong seeking to invoke the rules of natural justice so as to avoid the consequences.

[Rt. Hon. Lord Denning]

Natural justice prescribes only a minimum standard of fair procedural and this minimum cannot be bloated into a rigmarole of technicalities to vitiate the inquiry somehow or other. To do so would not be a natural justice but on the other hand unnatural or perverted justice.

[Bholanath v. Management of D.T.U., SLR (1971) 2 Delhi 240.]42

2.    Principles of natural justice cannot be elevated to the position of Fundamental Rights

Though the principles of natural justice must be given due importance, care must be taken against any over-emphasis. These principles cannot be elevated to the position of Fundamental Rights.

[Union of India v. Col. J. N. Sinha 1971 SC 40.]

3.    Principles of Natural Justice - traditional English Law

The traditional English law recognises two principles of natural justice :

(1) Nemo Debet esse judex in propria sua causa : No man shall be a judge in his own cause or the deciding authority must be impartial and without bias.

(2) Audi Alteram partem : Hear the other side, or both the sides must be heard, or no man should be condemned unheard or that there must be fairness on the part of the deciding authority.

Due to rapid growth of constitutional as well as administrative law, a third principle of natural justice has been evolved;

(3) Speaking orders or Reasoned decisions : All orders should be supported by reasons.

4.                Four principles of Natural Justice Case-Law

The quintessence of the rules of natural justice in its journey through centuries has shed much of its glories and is now crystallised into four principles of justice namely :

(a) opportunity for both the contending parties to be heard;

(b) hearing before an impartial Tribunal so that no man can be judge of his own cause;

(c) decision made in good faith; and

(d) an orderly course of procedure

[Saxby and Parmer (India) Ltd. v. Third Industrial Tribunal, (1962) II LLJ 52 (56) (Calcutta High Court).]