The Supreme Court has held that concealment of Criminal Case by a Candidate can be ignored in certain situations after accessing certain factors.
The Division Bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice AS Oka stated that competent authority exercising powers with due diligence has to consider nature of post, nature of duties, impact of suppression on suitability before framing consequences for the Candidate.
Brief Facts of the Case
The present appeal has been filed assailing Allahabad High Court's order setting aside Single Judge's order of directing the Northern Railway to reconsider appellant's case with regards to his appointment in the Railway Protection Force.
The appellant was a juvenile when a criminal case was instituted against him in the year 1997 for offences under Sections 465, 468 and 471 IPC with an allegation that he had fraudulently prepared a forged caste certificate. After the chargesheet came to be filed against him, he moved an application seeking discharge and consequently he was discharged from the alleged offences.
A decade later, he applied for service in Railways but was shocked to find, during his training that his appointment has been cancelled on the premise of nondisclosure of criminal case being instituted against him in the year 1997.
Aggrieved, he preferred a writ in Allahabad High Court in which the single-judge bench concluded that it was not the case of suppression of material information which may deprive him of his appointment and placing reliance on the judgment of this Court in State of Uttar Pradesh Vs. Smt. Ram Kumari Devi, 1996 Latest Caselaw 196 SC.
When the above was appealed, the Division Bench of the High Court proceeded on a straight jacket formula on the premise that since the fact of criminal case once instituted against him is not disclosed, that appears to be the material suppression and in consequence thereof, while setting aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge.
Supreme Court's Observation
The Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that when there was an order of discharge passed by the Court of competent jurisdiction neither he was said to be prosecuted nor he was arrested and, thus, the information which was tendered by him in reference to clause 12 of the attestation form filled by him, was not a case of misrepresentation or of concealment which led to the cancellation of his appointment by the authorities.
Placing reliance on Avtar Singh Vs. Union of India and Ors., 2017 Latest Caselaw 810 SC, he further submitted that the Division bench has failed to look into the material aspect of the matter and the finding which has been recorded of suppression or concealment by the appellant, which he had intentionally not disclosed in the attestation form, is not supported by the material on record and unsustainable in law.
The Court after materially and factually analyisng the case, note at the outset that it cannot be disputed that the candidate who intend to participate in the selection process is required to furnish correct information relating to his character and antecedents in the verification/attestation form before or after his induction into service but at the same time, it is also true that the person who has suppressed the material information, cannot claim unfettered right of seeking appointment or continuity in service but, at the same time, he has a right not to be dealt with arbitrarily and power has to be exercised in reasonable manner with objectivity having due regard to the facts of case on hand.
"The yardstick which has to be applied always depends upon the nature of post, nature of duties, impact of suppression on suitability has to be considered by the competent authority considering post/nature of duties/services and power has to be exercised on due diligence of various aspects at the given time and no hard and fast rule of thumb can be laid down in this regard."
The Court mentioned that Avtar Singh case is the epitome in settling all such matter as a deatiled analysis and pointer has been made in the three-judge bench judgement.
Read Judgement Here:
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