Signing you in

A bench of Justices Madhuresh Prasad and Prasenjit Biswas was dealing with a plea of a former CISF constable challenging his termination on two grounds: the enquiry was conducted in English rather than his mother tongue, and that his acquittal in a parallel criminal trial should have resulted in his reinstatement.

“In the present case also, we find from the order of the chief metropolitan magistrate dated September 15, 2005, the court acquitted the petitioner on the following terms: Therefore, the accused person should get the ‘benefit of doubt’ and should be acquitted accordingly,” the court said on May 22.

The order added that in the criminal trial, however, only two witnesses were examined. In the present case, the conclusions in the departmental enquiry are not founded on the same set of evidence and witnesses.

The plea was filed by a petitioner who was a constable in the CISF. On the intervening night on November 7 and November 8, 2022, at a time when he was on duty, he allegedly unauthorisedly scaled the boundary wall of the establishment and entered the port area. The petitioner was allegedly apprehended carrying two bundles of raw silk from the NSD Port area.

He was taken to the CISF Office, and an FIR was lodged with the Officer-in-Charge of the South Post Police Station, Kolkata. He was removed from service on March 31, 2004, after a departmental enquiry found the charges proved.

The petitioner challenged his removal on two grounds: that the enquiry was conducted in English rather than his mother tongue, and that his acquittal in a parallel criminal trial should have resulted in his reinstatement.

Representing the state, advocate Uttam Basak submitted that an issue of the proceeding being conducted in the petitioner’s mother tongue was raised seven months after the petitioner submitted his reply to the charge memo.