Madhya Pradesh High Court: The Division Bench of Sheel Nagu and Sunita Yadav, JJ. while hearing a petition under Article 227 against order the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur Bench., dismissed the petition.
The petition was moved to CAT against the order cancelling candidature of the petitioner to the post of Chemical Processor Worker (Semi-skilled) in Ordnance Factory, Itarsi on grounds of petitioner not being acquitted honourable/clean for offences punishable under Sections 376, 384, 509 of IPC read with Section 4 of POCSO Act.
Counsel for the petitioner pointed out the Trial Court’s finding that the genesis of the incident, the complaint was made by prosecutrix to save her from disrepute and urged the Court to treat the acquittal clean and honourable.
The Court reiterated the well-settled principle that unless the acquittal in criminal trial is honourable and clean, the employer has enough discretion to find a candidate to be unfit for employment, subject to various other factors like sensitivity, and since the employment would be under the Ministry of Defence, the element of sovereignty of the nation comes into being. The Court also said that the reliance put forward by the petitioner has no avail in the present case and hence the petition was dismissed.[Vinod Kumar v. Union of India (Ministry of Defence), Misc. Petition No. 503 of 2022 decided on 08-02-2022]
Appearances by:
For Petitioner: Sri Vijay Kumar Tripathi, Advocate.
For Respondents: Sri J.K. Jain, Asstt. Solicitor General.
