Recently, the Chhattisgarh High Court has held that an employee dismissed from service on the basis of a valid criminal conviction cannot automatically claim back wages merely because the conviction is later overturned on appeal. The Court declined to grant salary benefits to a former power distribution company employee for the period between his dismissal and retirement, reiterating that acquittal does not, by itself, erase the consequences of a dismissal that was lawful when it was passed.
The case concerned a former employee of a power distribution company who was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act in December 2012 and subsequently dismissed from service. Although he retired while his appeal against the conviction was still pending, the High Court later acquitted him on the merits in 2020. Thereafter, the employer withdrew the dismissal order and granted him notional restoration with limited service benefits. However, it declined to pay back wages and other monetary benefits for the period during which he remained out of employment. Aggrieved by this decision, the employee approached the Court, arguing that his acquittal entitled him to full salary and consequential benefits for the intervening period.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal found no merit in the claim. The Court noted that the dismissal order was based on a conviction that was valid and operative at the time it was passed. It observed that “merely because the appellant was subsequently acquitted in appeal, the same would not automatically obliterate the legal consequences which had already ensued on account of the conviction”. Referring to settled principles laid down by the Supreme Court, the Bench held that back wages cannot be claimed as a matter of right when no service was rendered during the relevant period.
Applying the principle of “no work no pay”, the Court concluded that the employer-employee relationship stood severed during the period of dismissal and dismissed the appeal.
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