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Naresh Kumar Sinha v. The State of Bihar

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 814Decided 2 Apr 2025
C.A. No.-004661-004661 - 2025 (arising from SLP(C) No. 8840 of 2022)
Justice J.K. Maheshwari · Justice Aravind Kumar

Background

The appellant was appointed as a clerk at a government-aided school in Bihar in 1989 pursuant to a 1981 advertisement, and worked in that role for more than a decade and a half. In 2005, the District Education Officer issued a show-cause notice alleging his appointment order was forged and terminated his service without any formal inquiry. His challenges before the High Court's Single Judge and Division Bench both failed, with the courts relying on an affidavit stating the original appointment file could not be traced and that the appointment appeared to have been issued by an authority lacking the power to do so.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a "mere bald statement" that an appointment was based on forged documents, without any inquiry into the alleged forgery, cannot justify termination, especially after such a long, unblemished period of service. Since no departmental inquiry was ever conducted despite the seriousness of the fraud allegation, the Court found the termination order "per se untenable on fact and record" and set aside both the High Court's findings and the termination order.

Lesson Learnt

An employer cannot terminate a long-serving employee merely by alleging fraud or forgery in their appointment: due process requires a proper inquiry into such allegations before any punitive action can be taken, and unsubstantiated claims of fraud will not survive judicial scrutiny.

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

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