Published on: November 03, 2023 at 01:37 IST
Court: Supreme Court of India
Citation: SBI V. P. Zadenga (2023)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that the acquittal by a criminal court would not debar an employer from exercising the power to conduct departmental proceedings in accordance with the rules and regulations. It is held that the two proceedings, criminal and departmental, are entirely different which operate in different fields and have different objectives.
It is held that departmental proceedings could have continued in the face of acquittal in criminal proceedings had no force as “the nature and scope of a criminal case are very different from those of a departmental disciplinary proceeding and an order of acquittal, therefore, cannot conclude the departmental proceeding.
21. As a principle of law, we have already observed that a departmental proceeding pending criminal trial would not warrant an automatic stay unless, of course, a complicated question of law is involved. Also, acquittal in a criminal case ipso facto would not be tantamount to closure or culmination of proceedings in favour of a delinquent employee.
22. Having perused the delinquent employee’s response to the initiation of inquiry proceedings, most significantly, we notice that no plea of MoS was ever taken. No specific plea of postponement of disciplinary proceedings awaiting conclusion of a criminal trial was made.
23. It is seen that the officer neither pleaded nor indicated the prejudice caused to him as a consequence of the initiation of criminal proceedings or simultaneous continuation of both proceedings.
24. Applying all of the above-noted principles to the facts of the case, we find that neither was it the case of the delinquent employee that the trial to which he was subjected to begin within one year of the commission of the offence nor does the record speak to this effect. It is in the inquiry report10, dated 3rd December 2001, that an objection to the disciplinary proceedings being conducted while a criminal case was being tried is registered, but even there, no date stands specified.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra
