New Delhi:
A government official convicted in a corruption case should not be allowed to rejoin service till he or she is exonerated, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
A bench of Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Prasanna B Varale also said that allowing such corrupt officials to resume duty can “damage public trust”, as it dismissed a petition by a railway inspector who was convicted in a bribery case.
“Why should a corrupt public official be allowed to resume the job?” the bench asked.
“If a guilty officer is allowed to remain in service, it will weaken the foundation of the system. This would be an insult to honest officers,” it added.
In his plea, the inspector of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had sought a stay on his conviction by a trial court in Gujarat in the bribery case. The Gujarat High Court had suspended the sentence and granted bail to the inspector, but refused to suspend his conviction.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Niteen Kumar Sinha said the trial court had committed an error in convicting the inspector and awarding him a two-year prison term.
There was no evidence to show that the inspector had demanded and accepted a bribe, as alleged against him, Mr Sinhal said. He, therefore, urged the top court to stay the conviction and allow his client to resume his job.
Citing the case of ‘K.C. Sareen vs Union of India’, the bench said: “A convicted officer cannot be allowed to continue in service merely on the ground that an appeal is pending in a higher court. Allowing such public servants to continue in public office damages public trust.”
Subsequently, the court dismissed the petition.
In the ‘K.C. Sareen vs Union of India’ case, the top court had noted that “when a public servant was found guilty of corruption after a judicial adjudicatory process conducted by a court of law, judiciousness demands that he should be treated as corrupt until he is exonerated by a superior court.”
