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State Bank of India & Anr. vs K.S. Vishwanath

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 616Decided 20 May 2022
Civil Appeal No. 3490 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

The respondent was a Deputy Manager (Cash) at an SBI branch in Bangalore. He was accused of using a forged letter to fraudulently withdraw Rs. 10 lakh from another branch, which was never accounted for at his own branch. A departmental enquiry found the charge proved based on 9 witnesses and 41 documents, and he was dismissed from service. A single judge of the Karnataka High Court set aside the dismissal (while granting only consequential benefits, no back wages, as he had since reached retirement age), and a Division Bench upheld that decision. The Bank appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that both the single judge and the Division Bench had exceeded the limited scope of judicial review under Articles 226/227 by re-appreciating the evidence as if sitting in appeal over the enquiry officer's findings. Reiterating settled law, the Court held that a writ court cannot reassess evidence in a domestic/departmental enquiry or substitute its own view where there is some evidence reasonably supporting the finding of guilt; it can only interfere for violation of natural justice, no evidence at all, or perversity. Since the enquiry evidence (including witness testimony that the employee prepared the forged letter and personally collected the cash) reasonably supported the finding of guilt, and the employee's later acquittal in the parallel criminal case (on benefit of doubt) did not affect the validity of the departmental finding, the standards of proof differ, the Court restored the dismissal order.

Lesson Learnt

Courts exercising writ jurisdiction cannot act as an appellate authority over departmental disciplinary findings; if there is some legal evidence supporting the finding, the adequacy or reliability of that evidence cannot be re-examined by a writ court, and an acquittal in a criminal case (especially on benefit of doubt) does not automatically invalidate a departmental dismissal based on the same facts.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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