VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

430 DECISION - 175
are affirmed by the witnesses in chief examination and that it is only
then the ex parte statements given by the witnesses at the stage of
preliminary enquiry become substantive evidence. High Court held
that the entire proceedings were vitiated for violation of the basic
principles of natural justice as the statements taken behind the back
of the charged officer at the time of the preliminary enquiry have
been taken to be substantive evidence.
(175)
(A) Compulsory retirement (non-penal)
(B) Order — defect of form
Absence of words ‘in public interest’ in the order of
compulsory retirement, where power is exercised
in public interest, does not render order invalid.
Mayenghoam Rajamohan Singh vs. Chief Commissioner
(Admn.) Manipur,
1977(1) SLR SC 234
The appellant was a Subordinate Judge in Manipur State
and was compulsorily retired from service.
While rejecting the contentions of the appellant, the Supreme
Court held that if power can be traced to a valid power the fact that
the power is purported to have been exercised under non-existing
power does not invalidate the exercise of the power. The affidavit
evidence is that the order of compulsory retirement was made in
public interest. The absence of recital in the order of compulsory
retirement that it is made in public interest is not fatal as long as
power to make compulsory retirement in public interest is there and
the power in fact is shown in the facts and circumstances of the case
to have been exercised in public interest and further that whether the
order is correct or not is not to be gone into by the court.