The Delhi high court on Thursday said a departmental inquiry and criminal proceedings can go handin-hand against a government employee in a disproportionate assets case. The court’s ruling came while dismissing a plea of an officer with National Textile Corporation Limited (NTC) who had sought quashing of departmental proceeding on the ground that he was being prosecuted in a criminal court and hence, could not be tried twice for the same offence.
‘‘Principles of natural justice do not require that the employer should wait for the decision of the criminal court before taking disciplinary action against the employee,’’ said justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw while referring to SC judgments.
‘‘It is not in the interest of the administration that persons accused of serious misdemeanour should be continued in office indefinitely and for long periods awaiting the result of criminal proceedings. Such a situation was held to be serving the interest of the guilty and the dishonest only,’’ he said.
HC passed the order on a petition filed by one Raj Kumar Sharma who was suspended after the CBI arrested him and filed a criminal case for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Later on, the NTC also initiated a inquiry against him.
Source:- TheTimes of India 11 June 2010 Page 3Delhi
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