What is full acquittal? SC clears out

New Delhi: An acquittal in criminal proceedings does not automatically nullify departmental proceedings against a government employee, the Supreme Court has ruled.

"Mere acquittal in a criminal case does not have the effect of nullifying the decision taken in the departmental proceedings. They operate in different areas of considerations," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia said while setting aside a Gujarat High Court judgement that directed the back wages of an employee should be reinstated on his acquittal.

Kadarbhai J Suthar, a driver of the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation, was dismissed from service after a departmental inquiry held him guilty of criminal negligence when a eight-year-old girl was crushed to death under his bus.

The corporation also paid compensation of Rs 45,000 to the family of the child. After a criminal court acquitted Suthar of the charges, the Labour Court ordered his re-instatement on the reasoning that since he was acquitted, "a contrary view in the departmental proceedings was not permissible".

However, the Labour Court ordered that Suthar would not be entitled to any back wages in view of several other cases of misconduct against him. A single-judge bench of the Gujarat High Court ordered the payment of back wages at six per cent interest but a division bench modified the order with a direction that Suthar was entitled to 75 per cent wages, following which the

corporation filed an appeal in the apex court.

The corporation said the Labour Court had rightly denied back wages to Suthar since several other charges of misconduct were pending against him, but complained that the High Court had erred in directing the payment of these wages.

Accepting the corporation's plea, the apex court said the single-judge bench and the division bench of the High Court completely lost sight of Suthar's previous misconduct.

"Merely because the corporation did not challenge the order of reinstatement that does not lead to a conclusion that it accepted any illegality in the departmental proceedings," the Supreme Court observed while upholding the corporation's appeal.