Chairman Administrative Committee U.P. Milk Union & Dairy Federation Centralized Services v. Jagpal Singh
Background
An employee of the U.P. Co-operative Dairy Federation's Centralised Services was found, after a departmental inquiry, to have created a hidden extra chamber in a milk tanker to manipulate weight measurements and cause financial loss. He was punished with reversion to a lower pay scale, with the punishment order approved by the Commissioner (Dairy Milk)/Registrar. He challenged the punishment in the Allahabad High Court, arguing the approving authority was not competent and that mandatory prior concurrence of the statutory Board under Regulation 87 of the 1975 Service Regulations had not been obtained. Both the Single Judge and the Division Bench ruled in his favour and quashed the punishment, prompting the Federation's appeal to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that the High Court had wrongly applied Regulation 87 of the general 1975 Service Regulations, which had ceased to govern Centralised Service employees after a 1979 notification removed them from that regime. Instead, the specific 1984 Dairy Service Rules (framed under the non-obstante Section 122-A of the Act) governed disciplinary control, and under Rule 15 of those Rules the Chairman of the Administrative Committee was the Appointing and Disciplinary Authority, with no requirement of prior Board concurrence. The Court also rejected the argument that the order was invalid merely because the same individual held both the Chairman and Registrar posts, holding that exercising two statutorily conferred roles by one office-holder is not illegal, especially where no other authority could substitute. Finding no error of law in the punishment order, the Court set aside the High Court's judgments and dismissed the employee's writ petition, allowing the Federation's appeal.
Lesson Learnt
When a specific statutory rule (here, the 1984 Dairy Service Rules) squarely governs an issue, it overrides an earlier general regulation on the same subject, and departmental office orders cannot be read to import requirements inconsistent with the governing statutory rule.