VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

388 DECISION - 143
The petitioners, officials of Department of Agriculture, filed
the petitions to quash the proceedings placing them under
suspension.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court held that when superior
authority also has the same power as his subordinate has in any
case, in administrative matters, the superior authority instead of acting
itself can direct such inferior authority to act. Even if it is considered
that the subordinate authority acted at the instance of the superior
authority, it would not be bad because the superior authority itself
had such power and it cannot be said that the direction was given by
an authority which was “not entrusted with the power to decide”. This
would be so in administrative matters. It is not a case of quasijudicial
exercise of discretion. In administrative matters, the decision
cannot be said to be bad in law.
The order of suspension cannot but be an administrative
order. It may be that from such an order of suspension some evil
effects follow and the officer suspended thereby is affected, but that
would not make an order a quasi-judicial order. There is ample
authority to hold that such an order is an administrative order. Both
the authorities superior as well as subordinate, if they have concurrent
power to exercise administrative discretion, then even if the inferior
authority purports to exercise the discretion at the behest of the superior
authority, such an exercise of discretion would not be bad in law.
(143)
(A) Written brief
Failure to furnish copy of written brief of Presenting
Officer to charged Government servant constitutes
denial of reasonable opportunity and renders
proceedings invalid.
(B) Inquiry report — enclosures
Entire copy of Inquiry Report should be furnished to
the charged officer, together with its enclosures.