Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana high court has held that a Haryana govt polytechnic lecturer, who was acquitted in a criminal case over an alleged forged experience certificate and subsequently cleared in departmental proceedings, is entitled to full pay and allowances for over eight years of suspension.




Justice Harpreet Singh Brar has allowed the petition filed by Rachna Gupta , a senior lecturer in computer engineering, and set aside Haryana govt’s Dec 20, 2022, order that treated her suspension period from June 26, 2014, to Jan 2, 2023, as “leave of kind due”.




The HC directed the state to treat the entire period as duty and release her full pay and allowances, after adjusting the subsistence allowance already paid, along with consequential service benefits and interest at 6% per annum within three months from the date of filing of the petition.




Explaining the legal position on “honourable acquittal”, the bench observed, “It is well settled that the expression ‘honourable acquittal’ has no statutory home. Criminal law knows only of conviction and acquittal”. It further observed, “Its content must be gathered from the governing rule and from the substance of the judgment of acquittal.”




The bench said the substance of the acquittal, rather than the terminology used in the criminal court’s judgment, was decisive. It noted that the trial court had examined 27 prosecution witnesses, who supported its version, yet the allegations failed on the very fact in issue.




The petitioner was appointed as senior lecturer (computer engineering) in Sept 2003 after selection through Haryana Public Service Commission. It was alleged an experience certificate submitted for recruitment, issued by a Karnal college for July 24, 1995, to Sept 30, 1996, was forged.




Following an inquiry by the state Vigilance Bureau, an FIR was registered in Nov 2009 against the petitioner and 13 others under provisions of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act . Departmental proceedings were also initiated, and she was suspended on June 26, 2014.




Additional sessions judge-cum-special judge, Karnal, acquitted her and co-accused on Jan 29, 2016. An appeal filed against the acquittal was subsequently dismissed as withdrawn on Nov 27, 2019.




The state govt dropped the departmental charge-sheet on Dec 20, 2022, and reinstated the petitioner in Jan 2023. However, it treated the suspension period as leave of the kind due.




The petitioner, through her counsel advocate Edward Augustine George, challenged the move, contending that the period could not be converted into leave without her consent. The state, on the other hand, argued that the acquittal was based on the benefit of doubt and that criminal and departmental proceedings were governed by different standards of proof, and the govt had taken a lenient view while dropping the charge-sheet.




Rejecting the state’s stand, the Bench observed, “An administrative description of leniency can neither substitute a finding of misconduct nor furnish an independent legal basis for perpetuating the financial consequences of suspension.”




The HC also noted that the state had admitted that no punishment had been imposed upon the petitioner and that the departmental charge-sheet had ultimately been dropped without any finding of misconduct.