Paying Only Subsistence Allowance To Employee Suspended Due To Criminal Case And Later Acquitted Without Dept Proceedings Amounts To Punishment: Rajasthan HC

The Rajasthan High Court held that when an employee was suspended during pendency of proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act in which he was acquitted, in absence of any departmental proceedings against him, restricting his pay during suspension period to only subsistence allowance amounted to punishing such employee which could not be allowed. Court said: “The Tribunal rightly concluded that there was no departmental proceedings initiated and after acquittal in the criminal case, there was no occasion to restrict the pay during suspension period to the subsistence allowance. In other words, in absence of any departmental enquiry and any punishment order thereof by the department and after acquittal in criminal case the employee cannot be punished by restricting the pay during the period of suspension.” The division bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan and Justice Pramil Kumar Mathur was hearing a petition against the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal wherein CAT had set aside the order of Department of Telecommunications, New Delhi that allowed paying only subsistence allowance to an employee who was suspended during pendency of proceedings under PC Act but was ultimately acquitted. In absence of any departmental proceedings against the employee the order dated 30.06.2022 concluding that the suspension was justified and payment to the employee be restricted to the subsistence allowance tantamounts to punishing the employee inspite of the acquittal in the criminal case.” Accordingly, the petition was dismissed, and the order of the CAT was upheld.