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Sri Anil Kumar Upadhyay vs. The Director General, SSB and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 451Decided 20 Apr 2022
Civil Appeal No. 2707 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

The appellant, a Head Constable in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), was found by six female constables inside the women's ("Mahila") barracks at around 12:15 a.m., allegedly to meet a female constable friend. He was tried in a departmental Summary Force Court, found guilty of indiscipline compromising the barracks' security, and was ultimately punished with removal from service. He challenged this in the Gauhati High Court; while a Single Judge upheld the guilty finding as procedurally fair, the Judge found the punishment disproportionate because the female constable who let him in received a much lighter penalty (loss of two years' seniority), and sent the matter back for a lesser punishment. The Division Bench of the High Court reversed this and restored the removal-from-service order, leading to this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that courts have very limited power to second-guess the severity of a punishment chosen by a disciplinary authority, intervening only where the punishment "shocks the conscience" of the court or where a co-accused with truly identical culpability got a much lighter penalty. Here, the Court found the male Head Constable's conduct, entering the women's barracks at midnight and compromising its security, was materially more serious than the female constable's lapse in merely allowing entry during her sentry duty, so their situations were not comparable. Since the disciplinary proceedings were conducted fairly and the misconduct was serious for a member of a disciplined paramilitary force, the Court held the punishment of removal from service was not disproportionate, and dismissed the appeal, upholding the Division Bench's decision.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not casually second-guess or reduce disciplinary punishments imposed by employers, especially in disciplined forces, and simply pointing to a lighter punishment given to a differently-situated co-accused is not by itself enough to prove that one's own punishment was disproportionate.

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

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