# UNION OF INDIA v. CHOTHIA (H.P.) AND ORS. ETC. ETC

- **Citation:** [1978] 3 S.C.R. 652
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1978-04-07
- **Case number:** Civil Appeal Nos. 1329-1330 of 1977
- **Bench:** S. Murtaza Fazal Ali, Jaswant Singh
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/union-of-india-v-chothia-h-p-and-ors-etc-etc-7375
- **Pages:** 5

## Headnote

Indian Forest Service (Initial Recruitment) Regulation of 1966, Regulation
5, interpretation of-Whether or not the
pro~'isions of Regulatiori
5(2)(b)
mandatory in character-Affidavit in support of a contention must be
by a
person competent to certify.
Respondent No. 1 was selected for Superior Forest Service of the Government of Saurashtra in the year 1951.
On 9-4-1958, he was appointed as Assistant Conservator of Forests, Cl.ass III. Sometime in August 19591 Respondent
No. 1 was appointed as Deputy Conservator of Forests, consequent upon the
merger of Saurashtra with Greater Bombay.
On 1st May, 1956, he was allotted
to the newly created State of Gujarat and appointed as Deputy Conservator of
Forests.
A new service called the Indian Forests Service was
established in
1966 and Indian Forests Service Rules were made in 1966. Respondent No. 1
'"as one of the candidates to be considered for initial recruitment to the Indian
Forests Service from the State cadre.
The Selection Board did not recommend
the selection of Respondent No. 1 and other respondents were selected. Respondent No. 1, filed a writ petition in the High Court of Gujarat. The High
Court held that Regulation 5(2)(b) of the Indian
Forests Service
(Initial
Recruitment) Regulations, 1966 is mandatory and as the Selection Board did
not give reasons as enjoined by this provision, the selection made by the Board
was illegal. The selection as well as the Notification dated January 7, 1972 ·
were quashed accordingly.
Dismissing the appeals, by special leave the Court
HELD : I. The provisions of Regulation 5 (2 )(b) of the Indian
Forests
Service (Initial Recruitment) Regulations 1966, are mandatory in character and
whenever the Board sends the records to the Commission, it must give
its
reasons as required by S. 5(2)(b) of the Regulation. [655 G-H]
'
2. (a) Regulation 5 manifestly shows that the provision
required
three
essential conditions to be complied with :-
(i) that the Board shall prepare in order of preference a list of
officers of the State Forest Service in accordance with Regulation 4;
(ii) that the Board must adjudge persons whom it thinks suitable
for the appointment to the posts;
(iii) that the Board shall send the records of eligible officers of the
State who are not adjudged as suitable together with reasons
recorded by the Board.
[655 A-Cl
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(b) The words "shall than be referred to the Commission for advice
by
the Central Government along with" are of a mandatory character and govern
not only clause (a) but all the other clauses viz. (b) and (c). The
requiren1ents mentioned in clauses (a), (b) and (c) must be complied with before
the recommendation is sent to the Commission. [655 C-D]
,.
(c) Clause (b) of Regulation 5(2) is in public interest and has been made
with a view to avoid arbitrary or capricious exercise of discretion by the Board
and also to prevent any hostile discrimination. Clause (b) clearly states that
\Vhere eligible officers of the State Forest Service are not found suitable, reasons
must be given by the Board for their non-inclusion in the select list. [655 DI
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UNION OF INDIA v. CHOTHIA (Fazal Ali, J.)
653
K. G. Vasudevan v. State of Kerala (Unreported case No. O.P. 2910/72
dated J-10-1975) of the Kerala High Court); over-rnled.
A
(d) The wonl "adjudge" is a very strong term and indicates that the Board
must be satisfied that a person is not suitable and the requirement for· giving
reasons has been enjoined for the purpose of proving that the Board was not
only satisfied but has given grounds of its satisfaction so as to exclude possibility of any oblique or extraneous considerations.
The Commission would also,
B
be in a position to know the views of the Selection Board and the reasons given
by it for excluding a particular candidate so that it may verify the correctness
of the reasons given by the Board with the record forwarded by
the
Board.
Pe1usal by the Board of the confidential rolls of officers and
fo

## Text

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652
UNION OF INDIA
v.
CHOTHIA (H.P.) AND ORS. ETC. ETC.
April 7, 1978
(S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI AND JASWANT SINGH, JJ.]
Indian Forest Service (Initial Recruitment) Regulation of 1966, Regulation
5, interpretation of-Whether or not the
pro~'isions of Regulatiori
5(2)(b)
mandatory in character-Affidavit in support of a contention must be
by a
person competent to certify.
Respondent No. 1 was selected for Superior Forest Service of the Government of Saurashtra in the year 1951.
On 9-4-1958, he was appointed as Assistant Conservator of Forests, Cl.ass III. Sometime in August 19591 Respondent
No. 1 was appointed as Deputy Conservator of Forests, consequent upon the
merger of Saurashtra with Greater Bombay.
On 1st May, 1956, he was allotted
to the newly created State of Gujarat and appointed as Deputy Conservator of
Forests.
A new service called the Indian Forests Service was
established in
1966 and Indian Forests Service Rules were made in 1966. Respondent No. 1
'"as one of the candidates to be considered for initial recruitment to the Indian
Forests Service from the State cadre.
The Selection Board did not recommend
the selection of Respondent No. 1 and other respondents were selected. Respondent No. 1, filed a writ petition in the High Court of Gujarat. The High
Court held that Regulation 5(2)(b) of the Indian
Forests Service
(Initial
Recruitment) Regulations, 1966 is mandatory and as the Selection Board did
not give reasons as enjoined by this provision, the selection made by the Board
was illegal. The selection as well as the Notification dated January 7, 1972 ·
were quashed accordingly.
Dismissing the appeals, by special leave the Court
HELD : I. The provisions of Regulation 5 (2 )(b) of the Indian
Forests
Service (Initial Recruitment) Regulations 1966, are mandatory in character and
whenever the Board sends the records to the Commission, it must give
its
reasons as required by S. 5(2)(b) of the Regulation. [655 G-H]
'
2. (a) Regulation 5 manifestly shows that the provision
required
three
essential conditions to be complied with :-
(i) that the Board shall prepare in order of preference a list of
officers of the State Forest Service in accordance with Regulation 4;
(ii) that the Board must adjudge persons whom it thinks suitable
for the appointment to the posts;
(iii) that the Board shall send the records of eligible officers of the
State who are not adjudged as suitable together with reasons
recorded by the Board.
[655 A-Cl
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(b) The words "shall than be referred to the Commission for advice
by
the Central Government along with" are of a mandatory character and govern
not only clause (a) but all the other clauses viz. (b) and (c). The
requiren1ents mentioned in clauses (a), (b) and (c) must be complied with before
the recommendation is sent to the Commission. [655 C-D]
,.
(c) Clause (b) of Regulation 5(2) is in public interest and has been made
with a view to avoid arbitrary or capricious exercise of discretion by the Board
and also to prevent any hostile discrimination. Clause (b) clearly states that
\Vhere eligible officers of the State Forest Service are not found suitable, reasons
must be given by the Board for their non-inclusion in the select list. [655 DI
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UNION OF INDIA v. CHOTHIA (Fazal Ali, J.)
653
K. G. Vasudevan v. State of Kerala (Unreported case No. O.P. 2910/72
dated J-10-1975) of the Kerala High Court); over-rnled.
A
(d) The wonl "adjudge" is a very strong term and indicates that the Board
must be satisfied that a person is not suitable and the requirement for· giving
reasons has been enjoined for the purpose of proving that the Board was not
only satisfied but has given grounds of its satisfaction so as to exclude possibility of any oblique or extraneous considerations.
The Commission would also,
B
be in a position to know the views of the Selection Board and the reasons given
by it for excluding a particular candidate so that it may verify the correctness
of the reasons given by the Board with the record forwarded by
the
Board.
Pe1usal by the Board of the confidential rolls of officers and
forwarding
the
record to the commission is not substantial compliance with the provisions of
Regulation 5(2)(b). Regulation 5(2)(b) is not an idle formality. [655 C-F]
3. In the instant case, the deponent in the affidavit, not being a member of
C
the Selection Board, was not at all competent to certify as to what
was
the
reason given by the Board, as required by Regulation 5 (2) (b), nor could the
affidavit supply an omission made by the selection Board is not con1plying \Vith
the mandate contained in Regulation 5(2) (b).
[656 D-E]
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal Nos. 1329-1330
of 1977.
Appe.11 by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated
D
18-3-1977 and 29-4-1977 of the Gujarat High Court in Special Civil
Appeal Nos. 1080/72 and L.P.A No. 106/77.
R. P. Bhatt and Girish Chandra for the Appellant.
R. S. Gae, P. H. Parekh, (Mrs.) Manju Sharma and C. B. Singh
for Respondent No. 1 in C.A. No. 1329/77.
E
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
FAZAL ALI, J.-These appeals by
Special leave are
directed
agamst the Judgment of the division Bench of the Gujarat High Court
dated 18th March, 1977 by which writ petition filed by respondent
No. 1 was allowed and the impugned selection made by the Selection
F
Board was quashed as also
the notification
dated
January
7,
1972.
The facts have been detailed in the Judgment of the High Court
and it is not neces·sary to repeat the
same all over again.
Suffice
it to say that Respondent No. 1 was selected for Supe.rior Forest Ser-
. vice of the Government of Saurashtra in the year 1951. On 9-4-1958,
he was appointed as Assistant Conservator of Forests, Class III. Sometimes in August, 1959, Respondent No. 1 was appointed as Deputy
Conservator of Forests consequent upon the merger of Saurashtra with
Greater Bombay.
On 1st May, 1960 the State of Gujarat was crealed
and Respondent No. 1 was allotted to the
Gujarat Cadre and appointed as Deputy Conservator of Forests. Sometimes after in the year
1966, there was amendment in the All India Service Act by which a
new service called the Indian Forests Service was
established
and
Indian Forests Service Rules were made in 1966. In the instant case,
we are only concerned with the interpretation of the Regulation 5 of
the Indian Forest Service (Initial Recruitment) Regulation of 1966.
G
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654
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1978] 3 S.C.R.
A
Respondent No. 1 was one of the candidates to be considered for
initial recruitment to the Indian Forest Service from the State Cadre.
It appear~ that the Selection Board did not recommend the selection of
.Respondent No. 1 and other respondents were selected.
Respondent No. 1, therefore, filed writ petition in the High Conrt of Gujarat
for qunshing the selection made by the Selection Board.
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The sole point that was urged before the High Court was that the
mandatory provisions of Regulation 5 dated 1st Septemlier, 1966 as
amended uptodate had been violated and, therefore, the selection made
by the Board was illegal. The High Court accepted the plea taken by
Respondent No. 1 and allowed the writ petition as indicated above.
The Union of India obtained special leave of this Court and hence this
appeal before us.
The short point which falls for determination in this case is as to
whether or not the provisions of the Regulation 5 (2) (b) of the Indian
Forests Service (Initial .Recruitment) Regulations, 1966 (hereinafter
referred to as the .Regulations) are mandatory in character.
The High
Court held that Regulation 5(2)(b) is mandatory and a~ the Selection
Board did not give reasons as enjoined by this provision, the selection
made by the Board was illegal.
Appearing in support of the appeal,.
Mr. Bhatt submitted in the first place that the Regulation does not contain mandatory requirements for giving reasons by the Board when it
submits its recommendations to the Commission. Secondly, it was submitted that the Selection Board on perusal of the confidential rolls of
the Respondent No. 1 was satisfied that he was not a suitable person
to be recruited to the service and he was, therefore, ignored.
The
Board, therefore, did not commit an_y error of law in not selecting,
respmdent no. 1.
Reliance has been placed by the Counsel for the
Appellant on an unreported decision of the Kerala High Court which
has been annexed to the paper book. In our opinion, the interpretation of Regulation 5 (2) (b) does not present 11.nv difficulty at alL
Relevant portion of Regulation 5 may be extracted thus :-
"5. PreQ_aration of list of suitable officers.
1. The Board shall prepare, in the order of preferance, a
list of such officers of State Forest Service who satisfy
the conditions specified in Regulation 4 and who are
adjudged by the Board suitable for
appointment to
posts in the senior and junior scales of service.
2. The list prepared in accordance with sub-regulation
( 1) shall .then be referred to the Commission
for
advice, by the Central Government alongwith -
(a) the records of all officers of State Forest Service·
included in the list;
(b) the records of all other eligible officers of the
State Forest Service who are not adjudged suitable for inclusion in the list, together with the
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UNION OF INDIA V. CHOTHIA (~!AU, J.)
655
reasons as recorded by the Board for their nonA
inclusion in the list"
(Emphasis ours)
A perusal of Regulation 5 manifestly shows that the
provision
requir~s three essential conditions to be complied with :-
(i) that the Board shall prepare in order of preferance a
list of officers of the State Forest Service in accordance with Regulation 4;
(ii) that the Board must adjudge persons whom it thinks
suitable for the appointment to the posts;
(iii) that the Board shall send the records of eligible officers -of the State who are not adjudged as suitable
together with reasons recorded by the Board.
The words "shall then be referred to the Commission for advice,
by the Central Government alougwith" appear to be of a mandatory
character and govern not ouly cl. (a) but all the other clauses viz. (b)
and ( c).
Thus, a plain interpretation of regulation 5 would
show
that the requirements mentio_11_ed in els. (a), (b) aud (c) must Le
complied with before the recommendation is sent to the Commission.
Cl. (b) clearly states that where eligible officers of the State Fcrnst
Service are not found suitable, reasons must be given by the Board for
their non-inclusion in the select list. This provision, in our opinion is
in public interest and has been made with a view to avoid arbitrary or
capricous exercise of discretion by the Board, and also to prevent any
hostile discrimination. The word 'adjudge' is a very strong term and indicates that the Board must be satisfied that a person is not suitable and
the requirement for giving reasons, ha's been enjoined for the purpose of
proving that the Board was not only satisfied but has given grounds
of it~ satisfaction so as to exclude possiblity of any oblique or extraneous consideration. In these circumstances, therefore, we are unable
to agree· with the counsel for the appellant that the requirement of
giving reasons as contained _in Regulation 5 (2) (b) is merely an idle
formality and it is a substantial compliance with the said clause if the
Board peruses the confidential rolls of officers and forwards the record
to the Commission.
Another purpose served by the provision is that
the Commission would be in a position to know the views
of the
Selection Board and the reasons given by it for excluding a particular
candidate so that it may verify the correctness of the reasons given by
the Board with the record forwarded by the Board. In these
circumstances we are satisfied that the provisions for giving reasons by
Regulation 5 (2) (b) are mandatory and must be complied with. IL. is
not disputed in the present case that the Board had not complied with
this part of the provision of Regulation 5 and this was. sufficient to
vitiate the selection made by the Board. Mr. Bhatt, relied on an unreported decision of the Kerala High Court where, in a very s~mmary
fashion, the said High Court has held that there was no reqmrement
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656
S\IUEME COURT REPORTS
[1978] 3 S.C.R.
in the Regulation that reasons should be given.
In this connection,
the High Court of Kerala observed as follows :-
"It is to be observed that there is no such requirement in
the Rul~s with which we are concerned in the instant case.
Being so, it would. be i11.appropriate to import any requirement of recording of reasons for selection in this case." (Vide
K. G. Vasudevan vs. State of Kera/a & Ors. 0 P 2910172
dt 1-10-75)
The High Court does not appear to have applied its mind
to
the
language used in S. 5(2)(b) of !he Regulation, nor has it considered
the avowed purpose of this provision which is undoubtedly in public
interest. In these circumstances, therefore, we find ourself unable to
agree with the view taken by the Kerala High Court on this point and
we overrule the same.
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Lastly, Mr. Bhatt submitted that in view of the reply-affidavit filed
by Mr. Bhardwaj, Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, it
would appear that the reasons were given by the Board which were
that the service record of the respondent did not justify the inclusion of
his name in the select list. In the first place, the affidavit appears to
have been given by a person who was not a member of the Selection
Board and as the recommendation was by a non-speaking order he
would not at all be conversant with the manner in which the recommendation was made ignoring the Res_pondent No. 1.
Nor had he
any knowledge of the way in which the mind of the Board was wo.rking
at that (!me. The deponent, therefore, was not at all competent to
certify as to what was the reason given by the Board as required by
Regulation 5 (2) (b) nor could the affidavit supply an omission made
by the Selection Board in not complying with the mandate contained
m Regulation 5(2)(b).
Secondly, the affidavit is obtuse
because
according to the Deputy Secretary, there was no obligation placed on
the Selection Board to give reasons for the supersession of the said
Forest Service Officers.
This view as we have pointed out, is absolutely incorrect and is not borne out by the language of the provision
of Regulation 5. Apart from this, the High Court has pointed out in
its judgment at page 31 of the brief that the Court had given an opportunity to the appellant to produce the records before it so as to
find out if the confidential records of the Respondent No. 1 did not
justify the selection.
The appellant did not choose to avail of the
opportunity given to it by the High Court which clearly indicates that
the position was somewh~t obscure.
For these reasons, we find ourself in complete agreement with the
judgment of the}Iigh Court and endorse the same. We are clearly of
the opinion that the provisions of Regulation 5(2) (b) are mandatory in
character and whether the Board sends the records to the Commission, it must give its reasons as required ~y s. 5 (2) (b ! o~ the Re$ulation.
The result is that the appeals fail and are d1sm1ssed
with
costs to Respondent No. l only in civil Appeal No. 1329/77.
S. R.
Appeal dismissed.
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