Conviction under Sec 323 no bar for denying govt job: CAT

A person convicted under Section 323, IPC, (voluntarily causing hurt to someone) and released on probation for good conduct will not incur any disqualification for appointment to a government job. Observing this, the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed an order of the Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala Cantt, for not allowing a selected candidate to join job.

Pardeep Kumar, a resident of Haryana, had filed an application before the tribunal, seeking directions to General Manager, Railway, to appoint him to the post of track man as per the appointment letter dated September 11, 2014, with all consequential benefits.

In the application filed through advocate Aditya Yadav, the applicant said that in 2012, the Railways had advertised various posts in the Northern Railway recruitment cell. He had applied for the post of track man in the OBC category and cleared the test. The Railway issued a letter dated August 2, 2014, appointing him as track man and asking him to report to the office of the DPO, Northern Railway, DRM Office, Ambala, on September 11, 2014.

He submitted his requisite documents, but he was not permitted to join his duty as a false criminal case dated January 7, 2010, under Sections 323, 325 and 34, IPC, was pending against him at that time. He approached the authorities concerned many times and requested them again and again to give him appointment provisionally or to keep the post vacant till the judgment in his case. The criminal case against him was disposed of on January 19, 2017. He was acquitted and released on probation.

Immediately after the judgment, he again approached the Railways to let him join the services, but his application was again rejected vide order dated October 25, 2017. The contention of the applicant is that the action of the respondents in not granting him appointment despite the fact that he has been acquitted of the charge and released on probation is illegal.

On the other hand, the counsel of the respondent said that the benefit of probation merely takes away the effect of sentence and not the conviction. Hence, the applicant cannot plead that he had been acquitted.

After hearing the arguments, the tribunal comprising members Rashmi Saxena Sahni and Suresh Kumar Batra said that the Allahabad High Court in a case had held that an offence under Section 323 of the IPC was not an offence of moral turpitude, therefore, a person released on probation of good conduct will not incur any disqualification due to conviction recorded by the trial court as provided under Section 12 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958.

“In view of the above, the order dated October 25, 2017, rejecting his application is quashed and set aside,” the tribunal told the Railways and directed it to pass a reasoned and speaking order within two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.