Mere delay can’t be reason to end disciplinary proceeding: HC

Mere delay can’t be reason to end disciplinary proceeding: HC 

18.09.2026

Chennai: A mere delay in conducting disciplinary proceedings against an employee will not automatically become fatal to the entire proceedings, Madras high court said, adding, “Courts must examine the reasons for the delay and the circumstances in which the alleged misconduct was discovered.” 

A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice Krishnaswamy Govindarajan further emphasised that the natural-justice inquiry focuses on whether the delinquent employee received a fair opportunity to defend himself, rather than mechanically determining whether a particular number of notices were issued. 

The court made the observations while upholding the termination of S Sukumar, an employee of Dharapuram Public Servants’ Co-operative Thrift and Credit Society, over allegations of misappropriating society funds. According to Sukumar, the alleged incident occurred in 1995-97, but the charge memorandum was issued in 2011. Due to the long delay in framing charges, a single judge of the court quashed the termination order. 

Aggrieved, the management of the society moved the present plea. Allowing the appeal, the court pointed out that the delay in issuing the charge memo was due to an interim order passed by a single judge of the court. Therefore, the delay cannot be attributed to the management of the society for initiation of departmental disciplinary proceedings, the court said. 

“Mere delays per se would not be sufficient to quash the entire charge memorandum in all cases. Each case has to be decided by considering the facts, nature of the allegations, mitigating circumstances, and the cause for the delay in initiating the departmental disciplinary proceedings,” the court said. As to the allegation of violation of natural justice, the court said, “It is not about issuance of show cause notices, but whether a fair opportunity was afforded to the delinquent officer. The test to be applied is whether the principles of natural justice has been complied with by affording a fair opportunity to the delinquent officer.