VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

664 DECISION - 324
passengers would amount to a finding based on pure hearsay and
would involve violation of principles of natural justice. On the other
hand, where a bus is checked and if it is found that tickets have not
been issued to several passengers and the passengers state in the
presence of the conductor that they paid the fare, the inquiry officer
would be justified in acting upon the evidence of the checkers stating
these facts even though the passengers themselves are not examined
as witnesses. A finding of guilt arrived at by him would not be based
on pure hearsay.”
The High Court did not accept the contention of the appellant
that it was nowhere shown that the 13 passengers made the
incriminating statements in the presence of the conductor in order to
make it “logically probative”, (relying on the decisions of the High
Court in State of Haryana vs. Mohan Singh, 1985(2) SLR 116 and
Punjab State vs. Harnam Singh, 1988(1) SLR 97), and observed
that the ratio in the Full Bench decision is quite clear and categorical
that there is no bar against the reception of hearsay evidence by
domestic tribunals. What value is to be attached to such evidence
depends upon the facts and circumstances of each case.
The High Court observed that it was not prepared to hold
that the statements alleged to have been made by the 13 passengers
who had paid the fare but had not been given the tickets were not
made within the immediate presence of the conductor. The checking
was carried out in the bus itself when it was on its journey. The
presence of the conductor must, in the circumstances, be presumed
so that if any allegations were made that the conductor had collected
the fare but had not issued the ticket, he could be confronted there
and then as to what he had to say. The High Court concluded that
the checking was carried out in the presence of the conductor and
the aforesaid statements must have been made in his presence. In
the facts and circumstances, the statements ascribed to those
passengers are at once logically probative. It deserves to be
highlighted that there is no so much as even a suggestion that the