ADEDEJI V. POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION

• Pages: 59-66

ADEDEJI V. POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION

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ADEDEJI V. POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION

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S.O. ADEDEJI

V

10 POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

ADEMOLA,

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C.J.N.

COKER,

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J.S.C.

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LEWIS,

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J.S.C.

10th February, 1967

APPELLANT

RESPONDENT

SUIT NO. SC 518/1966

Administrative Law - Certiorari - Dismissal of Police Officer for misconduct -

Requirements of natural jus'ice - Opportunity to know and meet case- Officer

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not given copy of written complaint or informed of evidence against him -

Tribunals - Disciplinary Proceedings - Police Service

COMMiSSiOn's

right to

regulate its own procedure within requirements of natural justice - Audi

alteram pattern rule where oral hearing not prescribed.

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ISSUES:

1. Whether the Police Service Commission (or any other similar tribunal) has, in

the absence of any declaration to the contrary, power to decide its own

procedure and lay down it:, own rules for the conduct of enquiries regarding

discipline and the like.

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2. How do the requirements of natural justice apply to the conduct of such a

tribunal.

FACTS:

The appellant, an Assistant Superintendent of Police was served with a letter,

signed by someone for the Secretary to the Police Service Commission, which

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set out certain offences alleged against him in a written report and invited him to

make representations. In reply to this letter, the appellant in a three paged letter

sought to exculpate himself and he set out certain facts which took place prior to

his arrest. The Commission hoard no oral evidence and subsequently a letter of

dismissal from the Commission on the grounds of misconduct was served on the

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appellant. Being dissatisfied, the appellant sought an order of

certiorari

to quash

the commission's decision to dismiss him from the Police Force, alleging that the

procedure adopted by the Commission , an administrative tribunal with discipli-

nary powers established by the Constitution, was irregular and contrary to natural

justice.

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At the hearing of the application in the High Court, the evidence relied upon by

the Commission in dismissing the appellant first came to his attention in a counter-

affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent and sworn to by the police officer who

claimed to have arrested the appellant. Some of the facts materially contradicted

the appellant's version in his letter to the commission.

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The trial Judge relying on a passage from the judgment of Harman J., in

Byrne

v. Kinematograph Renters Society Ltd and another

found from the Commission's

letter and the nature of the applicant's reply to it that the applicant knew very well

what complaint was made against him and dismissed the application.