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Anil Bhardwaj v. The Hon'ble High Court of Madhya Pradesh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 591Decided 13 Oct 2020
Civil Appeal No. 3419 of 2020
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The appellant was provisionally selected for the post of District Judge (Entry Level) in Madhya Pradesh's Higher Judicial Service, but his name was deleted from the select list in 2018 after a character-verification report flagged a pending criminal case against him (an FIR filed by his wife under Sections 498A/406 IPC). He was later acquitted of that charge in September 2019, after which he challenged the deletion in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, arguing his candidature should be reconsidered in light of the acquittal; the High Court dismissed his writ petition.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the Selection Committee's 2018 decision was based on a relevant and legitimate consideration, a criminal case was genuinely pending against the appellant at the time his suitability was assessed, and such decisions must be respected unless shown to be arbitrary or mala fide. Relying on precedents including Mehar Singh and Avtar Singh, it held that those in judicial and similar services are held to a standard of impeccable character and that a subsequent acquittal, occurring more than a year after the rejection, does not retroactively entitle a candidate to reconsideration. It distinguished cases like Mohammed Imran and Joginder Singh, where the acquittal had already occurred before the selection decision was made. Accordingly, the Court dismissed the appeal, but clarified that any "stigma" from the case stood washed out by the subsequent acquittal.

Lesson Learnt

For posts demanding high character standards (like judicial service), an employer can validly reject a candidate over a pending criminal case at the time of selection, and a later acquittal does not automatically revive the candidate's claim to that post if the acquittal came after the selection process concluded.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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