New Delhi, June 10, 2012: A
government official can be made to face departmental disciplinary
proceedings and trial for his alleged role in a criminal case
simultaneously, the Delhi High Court has ruled, rejecting the plea of an
IFS officer, facing the twin trouble.
“The
employer should not wait for the decision of the criminal court before
taking anydisciplinary action against the employee and that such
decision on the part of the employer does not violate the principles of
natural justice,”said a bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and V K
Jain, rejecting the plea of the IFS officer, allegedly involved in
trafficking nine persons to Germany in 2005.
“It
would, thus, be seen that there is no legal bar on disciplinary
proceedings and criminal trial proceedings simultaneously, against the
same person,” the bench added, citing various apex court’s decisions.
Rakesh Kumar, a
1972-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, had moved the high
court for stay on the disciplinary proceedings against him till
conclusion of the criminal trial against him saying that it would
cause“grave” prejudice to him.
A local court
yesterday framed charges for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating,
forgery and corruption against Kumar and three others in the human
trafficking case.
Kumar, the erstwhile
director general with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, had
allegedly facilitated the trafficking of nine individuals to Germany
under the guise of fake cultural group ‘Mehak Punjab Di’ by misusing his
official position for extraneous considerations.
Justice Jain, writing
the verdict, said “We… Find no reasonable possibility of any prejudice
being caused to the petitioner, on account of the departmental
proceedings being held simultaneously with the criminal trial.”
