Acquittal in criminal case is no ground for reinstatement: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court in The State of Rajasthan & Ors. vs. Phool Singh CA No. 5930/2022, while answering a question as to whether the employee can be reinstated in service for the reason that now on the same set of charges he has been acquitted by a criminal court, observed that merely because a person has been acquitted in a criminal trial, he cannot be ipso facto reinstated in service. While explaining the rationale behind the said conclusion, the Court stated that there is a fundamental difference between the criminal proceedings and departmental proceedings and in the nature of evidence and the degree of its scrutiny. While in a departmental proceeding a delinquent employee can be held guilty on the basis of “preponderance of probabilities”, on the other hand, in a criminal court the prosecution has to prove its case “beyond reasonable doubt”.

Also read: In case of vitiated enquiry, matter should be remitted back to authority to conduct enquiry: Supreme Court

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