Judiciary, legislature, executive are equal; Constitution is supreme: Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently said that the Constitution of India holds the supreme authority, and no individual organ of State -judiciary, legislature or executive - is superior to the other [Suresh Pal v. Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. and others]..Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri made the observation in a judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the departmental action taken against certain employees of power companies in Haryana.“Law and Society are never static and they are always dynamic. In England, there is no written Constitution and still the field of administrative law progressed through judge-made law. In India, there are three organs of the State i.e. the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive. None of the organs of the State is superior to the other. The sole superiority vests in the Constitution of India and hence, the Constitution of India is supreme,” the Court said..It added that judicial review of administrative action is an integral part of the Indian legal system but the precious and valuable time of courts must not be consumed by administrative authorities' ignorance of law. In particular, the Court emphasised on the importance of adhering to the principles of natural justice in administrative actions.“Infringement or breach of principles of natural justice in any form need to be corrected through Courts and at the same time, these principles are required to be inculcated and imbibed in the deciding authorities, who are judicial, quasi-judicial and purely administrative authorities in order to meet the Constitutional goals and to uphold the Rule of Law. It is in this context that various instances of breach of the principles of natural justice are under consideration in the present bunch of cases.”.The judge had previously flagged what he called the prevalence of ‘let the Court decide’ syndrome among authorities in service matters and called for training of the officers in the subject of administrative law. It had also highlighted that many public sector undertakings do not have robust legal support, as a result of which the litigation involving them increases manifold.“‘Let the Court decide syndrome’ has cropped up amongst the Public Sector Undertakings, Boards and Corporations. The administrative authorities abdicate their responsibilities and duties and prefer to pass adverse orders against the employees in order to evade their responsibility and leave it for the Courts to decide. This syndrome has led to increase in avoidable litigation,” the judgment stated. .The Court said that this trend can be dismantled by taking pre-emptory measures like legal education, training and accountability. Lack of knowledge of basic principles in the field of administrative law is also a strong factor causing the syndrome, it added.Thus, the Court directed the Central government to ensure that the officers are provided training in administrative law. "Consequently, the Union of India is hereby directed to ensure that in the Training Institutes for Civil Servants including Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, adequate and in-depth training and education be imparted in the subject of Administrative Law by a dedicated faculty on the subject. Thereafter, regular refresher courses be also conducted from time to time. Professors, Legal Practitioners, Research Scholars or other suitable resource persons be also associated from time to time.”.Further, to address the recurring issues arising in service matters, the Court issued a number of directions. Some of them are,Whenever a quasi-judicial authority or a purely administrative authority is vested with a power by any law for the time being in force to decide or pass an order, the power can be exercised by the same authority in which the power vests and no other authority.An order passed by a subordinate officer or any other officer not authorised to pass an order by stating that the same has been passed with the approval of the authority in whom power otherwise vests is illegal, perverse, arbitrary and coram non-judice.An order imposing punishment or any other order involving civil consequences as also an appellate or revisional order, if passed by a single stroke of a pen in the noting sheet or otherwise stating to be rejected or accepted or remanded etc. is illegal, arbitrary, cryptic, non-speaking and without application of mind. Therefore, it is also violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.If an order is passed by any authority by ‘copy-pasting’ of any earlier order(s) of some other case file/employee by only substituting the name, date etc., the same shall be an illegal, perverse, non-speaking and arbitrary order..Considering the conduct of the power utilities in the matter, the Court directed them to plant trees in Haryana within a period of six months. “Out of the present bunch of 38 cases, 30 cases pertain to UHBVNL, 5 cases pertain to DHBVNL and 3 cases pertain to HVPNL. Consequently, it is directed that total of 50,000/- (Fifty thousand) trees, preferably having medicinal values, shall be planted by all the 3 power utilities who are Respondents in the present bunch of cases in the proportion of 30,000 trees by UHBVNL, 10,000 by DHBVNL and 10,000 by HVPNL,” it ordered. .Senior Advocate Rajiv Atma Ram represented some of the petitioners. Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain with Senior Panel Counsel Krishna Dayama represented the Union of India.Senior Advocate Puneet Jindal represented the power companies..[Read Judgment]