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Union of India & Ors. v. Dalbir Singh

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 520Decided 21 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal No. 5848 of 2021
Justice Hemant Gupta · Justice V. Ramasubramanian

Background

A CRPF constable was accused of firing his service weapon during an incident in 1993 that killed one officer and injured another. He was convicted and dismissed from service, but later acquitted on appeal by the High Court (on benefit of doubt) and was accordingly reinstated. Years later, in 2013, a fresh departmental chargesheet accused him of misusing his service rifle in the same 1993 incident. Based on eyewitness testimony from fellow force members, the disciplinary authority found him guilty and dismissed him again; the Delhi High Court quashed this dismissal, reasoning the charges were internally inconsistent and unsupported by evidence, and ordered his reinstatement with back pay.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reversed the High Court and restored the constable's dismissal. It held that the High Court, exercising its limited power of judicial review over disciplinary proceedings, had overstepped by re-appreciating the evidence like an appellate court, something it is not permitted to do. The Court found there was credible, consistent eyewitness testimony (including a witness who personally caught the constable mid-reload) supporting the charge, and that departmental proceedings only require "preponderance of probability," not proof "beyond reasonable doubt" as in a criminal trial; a prior criminal acquittal does not bar a later departmental inquiry based on different evidence and standards.

Lesson Learnt

Courts reviewing a disciplinary inquiry can only check whether the process was fair and whether there was some evidence to support the finding: they cannot reweigh the evidence themselves; and being acquitted in a criminal case does not automatically protect an employee from departmental action on related misconduct, since the two proceedings follow different standards of proof.

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

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