NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE Vs. SURAJ NARAIN ANAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (part I). (Delivered on 18-3-1948)-This is an appeal by special leave from a judgment and decree of the Federal Court of India, D/- 4-12-1941, reversing a decree of the Court of the Judicial Commissioner, North- West Frontier Province, Peshawar, date 19-9-1940, which had affirmed a decree of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Peshawar, dated 8 March 1940. The Federal Court made a declaration that the respondent's dismissal was void and inoperative, and submitted the case to the Court of the Judicial Commissioner for consideration of the respondent's claim for arrears of pay. [a] On 1 March 1928, the respondent was appointed as a Sub-Inspector of Police by the Inspector General of Police, North-West Frontier Province. On 25 April 1938, the respondent was dismissed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, on a charge of copying during a departmental examination. He was therefore dismissed by an authority subordinate in rank to the officer who had appointed him.

(3.) After unsuccessful appeals to the Inspector-General of Police and the Provincial Government, the respondent instituted the present suit on 17 June 1939, in which he claimed a declaration that the order of dismissal was illegal, null and void, invalid and inoperative and that he still retained his office as Sub-Inspector of Police. He further claimed arrears of pay from the date of the order of dismissal up to that date. There was an alternative claim for damages, which no longer survived before this Board. The main question concerns the validity of the order of dismissal, which is challenged on the ground that the dismissing authority was subordinate in rank to the authority by whom the respondent had been appointed. It is sought to be justified on the provisions of the North-West Frontier Police Rules, which are made under the authority of the Indian Police Act, 1861 (Act V

(5.) of 1861), and it will be convenient to trace the history of these rules, so far as relevant to the point at issue, and the general statutory provisions which affect them.