Summary
A CRPF employee knowingly left verification-roll columns blank while a criminal case against him was pending. The Court held that deliberate non-disclosure could justify removal even without an express false answer. His later acquittal and plea for sympathy did not require the employer to condone the established misconduct. It set aside the High Court’s direction to impose a lesser punishment and dismissed the employee’s writ petition.
Issues
- Whether the High Court could require a lesser punishment for established suppression of a pending criminal case in the employment verification roll.
Held
- Leaving the relevant columns blank amounted to suppression here. The employee could not claim ignorance of proceedings in which he had surrendered and obtained bail, and the findings of misconduct had been affirmed by both High Court benches. (¶ 11)
- Non-disclosure of required material information and false disclosure may have equal gravity and can themselves support cancellation of candidature or termination. The governing principles nevertheless permit assessment of special circumstances and applicable instructions rather than requiring termination in every case. (¶ 12-14)
- The employer’s discretion to overlook a trivial lapse did not oblige it to condone this knowing omission concerning a pending case. Acquittal years after entry into service did not erase the established non-disclosure. (¶ 14-15)
- On these facts, neither the later acquittal nor sympathy supplied a legal basis to direct the employer to substitute a lesser punishment. (¶ 16)
Result
Union’s appeal allowed. The part of the Division Bench’s order interfering with punishment was set aside, and the employee’s writ petition stood dismissed without costs.