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Delhi High Court set aside an assessment order passed under Sections 143(3) and 144-B, Income-tax Act after finding violation of principles of natural justice, holding that the assessing officer failed to communicate the status of the assessee’s adjournment request and ignored the reply filed by the assessee.
In most cases, no. The law requires fairness, especially when a decision affects your livelihood. Here’s how it works.
“Pension is not a bounty but a valuable statutory right earned by an employee after rendering long years of service and any order resulting in deprivation or permanent withholding of pension entails serious civil consequences and requirement of hearing is not an empty ritual but a substantive safeguard to ensure fair exercise of discretion by the authority.”
“Serving a copy of the complaint and other relevant documents is mandatory under Rule 7, POSH Rules, and the failure to do so constitutes violation of the principles of natural justice.”
“Procedural provisions should not be interpreted with rigidity to the extent of defeating the substantive rights vested in the parties.”
In the case at hand, it was alleged that the date of personal hearing and the date of filing a reply are the same.
“The damages cannot be awarded merely on presumptions or whims and fancies of the complainant. To make out a case for award of dam ages, especially when the claim is to the tune of crores of rupees, some trustworthy and reliable evidence has to be led.”
“If this certificate has to be cancelled for any reason, the appellant ought to have been put on notice and an opportunity must have been given to the appellant, failing which, such cancellation will be construed as a nullity in the eye of law.”
“Bhagavad Gita may be recognised as national (Rashtriya) Dharma Shastra. It speaks about internal and eternal truth… Bhagavad Gita cannot therefore be confined within a given religion. It is a part of Bharatiya civilisation.”
“The language employed in Section 20(3) of the Lokpal Act is peremptory and admits of no discretion. The legislative intent is that the prima facie satisfaction necessary for directing an investigation under the Act must be reached only after considering the explanation of the concerned public servant.”
“In these hard days of unemployment, more particularly for women, there has to be a strong case made out that the employee has abandoned the job.”
The Court issued a general direction to the Registrar of Trademarks to decide all pending trademark registration applications as early as possible.
“Section 115(4) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 mandates the police to obtain the Registrar’s opinion before conducting a seizure under the Trade Marks Act. However, there was no record evidencing such mandatory consultation. The failure to comply with this statutory requirement vitiated the seizure proceedings and amounted to a jurisdictional error.”
“It is a settled proposition of law that whenever any stigmatic order is passed against a person, which causes stigma on his career in future, it is bounden duty of the authority concerned to provide him opportunity of hearing, before passing such an order.”
by Rimali Batra* and Col Rajeev Anand (Retd)**
A quick legal roundup to cover important stories from all High Courts this week.
Once it is found that the original order is passed by the Competent Authority without giving any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, the same is liable to be set aside as having been passed in violation of the principles of natural justice.
The Court noted that the appellate authority formed under BPCL’s Policy remedy would have comprised of their officers, and the same could not be permitted as BPCL could not be a judge in their own cause.
The Court stated that only because respondent is police personnel, it cannot be a ground to hold him guilty without conducting the statutorily prescribed departmental enquiry and that too in a matter, where the complainant and the witnesses are also police personnel.
Debarment encompasses a broader scope than termination, as it can prohibit an entity from entering into any contracts with a company altogether, rather than just ending one specific contract, as is the case with termination.