'Accused Cannot Be Dismissed From Service, Presuming Conviction', Delhi High Court Quashes Dismissal Order Of Police Officer Accused Of Murder

A division Bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justices C Hari Shankar and Sudhir Kumar Jain dismissed a Petition seeking to set aside the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal. Accordingly, invoking Article 311 of Constitution, the order stated that the Respondent could not be allowed to continue in police services and needed to be dismissed immediately without following the procedure of regular Departmental Proceedings because as per his disclosure statement and the Preliminary Enquiry, his involvement in the case was allegedly proven. In view of the fact that no material had been placed by the respondents herein to satisfy the Court that it was necessary to dispense with a formal enquiry in terms of proviso appended to Clause of Article 311 of the Constitution of India, we are of the opinion that the impugned orders cannot be sustained and they are set aside accordingly.” While deciding the case of the Respondent, the Court relied on excerpts from several judgements including Jaswant Singh v. State of Punja, Union of India v. Tulsiram Patel, UOI v Ram Bahadur Yadav and more. The Court ratified the observations of the Tribunal that before invoking proviso to Article 311 of the Constitution, the Disciplinary Authority had to be satisfied on the basis of the material available on the file that the case was of such a nature where it was not practicable to hold an inquiry in view of a threat, inducement, intimidation, affiliation with criminals etc.