{"id":123387,"date":"1976-07-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1976-07-29T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/state-of-punjab-anr-vs-v-p-duggal-others-on-30-july-1976"},"modified":"2018-01-25T07:53:43","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T02:23:43","slug":"state-of-punjab-anr-vs-v-p-duggal-others-on-30-july-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/state-of-punjab-anr-vs-v-p-duggal-others-on-30-july-1976","title":{"rendered":"State Of Punjab &amp; Anr vs V.P. Duggal &amp; Others on 30 July, 1976"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Supreme Court of India<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">State Of Punjab &amp; Anr vs V.P. Duggal &amp; Others on 30 July, 1976<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_citations\">Equivalent citations: 1977 AIR  196, \t\t  1977 SCR  (1)\t 96<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_author\">Author: H R Khanna<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: Khanna, Hans Raj<\/div>\n<pre>           PETITIONER:\nSTATE OF PUNJAB &amp; ANR.\n\n\tVs.\n\nRESPONDENT:\nV.P. DUGGAL &amp; OTHERS\n\nDATE OF JUDGMENT30\/07\/1976\n\nBENCH:\nKHANNA, HANS RAJ\nBENCH:\nKHANNA, HANS RAJ\nSARKARIA, RANJIT SINGH\nUNTWALIA, N.L.\n\nCITATION:\n 1977 AIR  196\t\t  1977 SCR  (1)\t 96\n 1976 SCC  (3) 715\n\n\nACT:\n\t    Practice and procedure--Whether High Court can direct  a\n\tMinister  to be impleaded as a party and file  his  personal\n\taffidavit.\n\n\n\nHEADNOTE:\n\t    The\t respondent challenged the validity of a  Government\n\tNotification,  and also the Minister's order  upholding\t the\n\tsame.\tAt  the hearing, the High Court\t directed  that\t the\n\tconcerned  Minister  be impleaded as a party, and  file\t his\n\tpersonal affidavit.  Challenging the directions, the  appel-\n\tlant  contended\t before\t this Court,  that  the\t allegations\n\tagainst the Minister did not disclose any personal ammus  on\n\this part, and he was not liable to be added as a party or to\n\tfile his affidavit.\n\tPartly allowing the appeal, the Court,\n\t    HELD:  The direction for the impleading of the  Minister\n\tas  a party was given by the High Court with a view  to\t ap-\n\tpraise the Minister of the allegations made in the  petition\n\tand  thus  to  afford him an  opportunity  of  controverting\n\tthose .allegations, if .he so deemed proper.  We decline  to\n\tinterfere.It is\t  essentially for the Minister concerned  to\n\tdecide in the light of the allegations made in the  petition\n\tas to whether he should or should not file an affidavit.\n\t[97 E-F]\n\n\n\nJUDGMENT:\n<\/pre>\n<p>\t\t     CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal\t No.<br \/>\n\t\t 1207 of 1975.\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t     (Appeal by special leave from  the judgment and<br \/>\n\t\t order\tdated 5-8-1975 of the Punjab &amp; Haryana\tHigh<br \/>\n\t\t Court in  Letters  Patent Appeal No. 459\/75).<br \/>\n\t\t     J.S.  Wasu,  Adv.\tGeneral,  Punjab  and\tO.P.\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t Sharma,  for  the appellants.\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t V.C. Mahajan and S.S. Khanduja, for respondent\t No.\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t 1. P.K. Pillai, for respondent No. 1.\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t The Judgment of the Court was delivered by<br \/>\n\t    KHANNA,  J.&#8211;This is an appeal by special leave  by\t the<br \/>\n\tState  of Punjab against the order of the Punjab  &amp;  Haryana<br \/>\n\tHigh  Court,  whereby at was directed that the\tMinister  in<br \/>\n\tcharge\tof Irrigation Department be impleaded as a party  in<br \/>\n\tthe  writ  petition filed by V.P.  Duggal  respondent.\t The<br \/>\n\tMinister was also directed to file his affidavit.<br \/>\n\t    In\tthe writ petition filed by him,\t  Duggal  respondent<br \/>\n\tchallenged  notification dated January 29, 1974\t fixing\t the<br \/>\n\tseniority  of the engineers n the Irrigation  Department  of<br \/>\n\tthe Punjab Government.\tDuring the course of the heating  of<br \/>\n\tthe  writ petition, an order was made by the High  Court  on<br \/>\n\tNovember  18, 1974 that the Minister concerned might give  a<br \/>\n\tpersonal  hearing  to the parties and  thereafter  pass\t the<br \/>\n\tnecessary  order  in the matter.   The\tMinister   concerned<br \/>\n\tthereafter  heard  the parties and made a speaking order  on<br \/>\n\tFebruary 18, 1975 affirming the earlier seniority list.\t The<br \/>\n\twrit petition was thereafter amended, and<br \/>\n<span class=\"hidden_text\">\t97<\/span><br \/>\n\tin  the amended petition, Duggal respondent also  challenged<br \/>\n\tthe validity of .the later order of February 18, 1975.<br \/>\n\t    At the resumed hearing of the writ petition, the learned<br \/>\n\tJudge  hearing the petition directed that the Minister\tcon-<br \/>\n\tcerned\tbe impleaded as a party in the petition, as  in\t the<br \/>\n\tview of the learned Judge, allegation had been made  against<br \/>\n\tthe Minister that he had deviated from the normal  procedure<br \/>\n\twhile  passing the impugned order dated\t February  18,\t1975<br \/>\n\tinasmuch  as he had dealt with the matter directly  and\t by-<br \/>\n\tpassed\tthe Secretary of the Department. Direction was\talso<br \/>\n\tissued that the Minister should file an affidavit in  regard<br \/>\n\tto the allegations made in the petition.\n<\/p>\n<p>\tAt  the hearing of the appeal before us, the  learned  Advo-<br \/>\n\tcate General for the State of Punjab has contended that\t the<br \/>\n\tallegations made in the amended petition do not disclose any<br \/>\n\tpersonal  animus on  the part of the Minister concerned\t and<br \/>\n\tas such the High Court was in error   in directing that\t the<br \/>\n\tMinister  be  impleaded as a party.  The  learned  Advocate-<br \/>\n\tGeneral has also assailed the direction of the High Court in<br \/>\n\tsofar  as  the\tMinister has been called upon  to  file\t his<br \/>\n\tpersonal affidavit.As against that, Mr. Mahajan on behalf of<br \/>\n\tDuggal\t respondent has urged that looking to the  facts  of<br \/>\n\tthe  case if the High Court came to the conclusion that\t the<br \/>\n\tMinister was a necessary or proper party, this Court  should<br \/>\n\tnot interfere in the matter.\n<\/p>\n<p>\tWe have given the matter our  consideration, and it seems to<br \/>\n\tus that the direction for the impleading of the Minister  as<br \/>\n\ta  party  was given by the High Court with a view to apprise<br \/>\n\tthe  Minister  of the allegations made in the  petition\t and<br \/>\n\tthus  to  afford him an opportunity of\tcontroverting  those<br \/>\n\tallegations, if he so deemed proper. Taking the totality  of<br \/>\n\tthe  facts and circumstances of the case,  we do   not\tfeel<br \/>\n\tpersuaded  to  interfere with the order of  the\t High  Court<br \/>\n\tadding\t the Minister as a party to the writ  petition.\t The<br \/>\n\tHigh Court was, however, in our opinion in error in  direct-<br \/>\n\ting  that the Minister concerned should file his  affidavit.<br \/>\n\tIt  is essentially for the Minister concerned to  decide  in<br \/>\n\tthe  light  of the allegations\tmade in the petition  as  to<br \/>\n\twhether\t he  should or should not file\tan  affidavit.\t We,<br \/>\n\ttherefore,  decline to interfere with the order made by\t the<br \/>\n\tHigh  Court insofar as it has directed that the Minister  be<br \/>\n\timpleaded  as a party.\tThe other part of the order  whereby<br \/>\n\tthe  Minister  concerned was directed to file  his  personal<br \/>\n\taffidavit is set aside.\t The appeal shall stand disposed  of<br \/>\n\taccordingly.  The  parties in the circumstances\t shall\tbear<br \/>\n\ttheir own costs.\n<\/p>\n<pre>\tM.R.\t\t\t\t\t     Appeal   partly\n\tallowed.\n<span class=\"hidden_text\">\t98<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court of India State Of Punjab &amp; Anr vs V.P. Duggal &amp; Others on 30 July, 1976 Equivalent citations: 1977 AIR 196, 1977 SCR (1) 96 Author: H R Khanna Bench: Khanna, Hans Raj PETITIONER: STATE OF PUNJAB &amp; ANR. Vs. RESPONDENT: V.P. DUGGAL &amp; OTHERS DATE OF JUDGMENT30\/07\/1976 BENCH: KHANNA, HANS RAJ BENCH: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court-of-india"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>State Of Punjab &amp; Anr vs V.P. 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