The Supreme Court directed appointment of a candidate whose appointment was rejected because he was tried for the offence under section 498A IPC.

The petitioner, Pramod Singh Kirar applied for the post of Constable in 2013 and was successfully appointed as Constable. In the verification phase he declared he was once tried for the offence under Section 498A of IPC and later he was acquitted in the said case. Later he was informed that his appointment was cancelled as he was involved in the criminal case.

The Madhya Pradesh HC upheld the rejection observing that if the candidate was found to be involved in a criminal case, even in a case of acquittal and/or even in a case where the employee has made declaration truthfully of a concluded criminal case the employer still has the right to consider antecedents, it cannot be compelled to appoint the candidate.

The bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar observed that the alleged offence was related to a matrimonial dispute. The court moreover, found that there was an out of court settlement. It was further noticed that there was no suppression of material facts in this case.

“Under the circumstances and in the peculiar facts of the case, the appellant could not have been denied the appointment solely on the aforesaid ground that he was tried for the offence under Section 498A of IPC and that too, for the offence alleged to have happened in the year 2001 for which he was even acquitted in the year 2006 may be on settlement,” the court said.

The court therefore directed his appointment to post of constable within a period of four weeks.