Manual Scavenging: Delhi High Court Quashes FIR Against Junior Engineer In 2017 Delhi Jal Board Sewer Deaths Case
The Delhi High Court has quashed an FIR and all consequential criminal proceedings against a Junior Engineer of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in connection with the 2017 sewer deaths case, holding that criminal prosecution cannot continue when the accused has already been exonerated on merits in departmental proceedings on identical allegations. [2026 LiveLaw (Del) 638]Justice Vikas Mahajan...
The Delhi High Court has quashed an FIR and all consequential criminal proceedings against a Junior Engineer of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in connection with the 2017 sewer deaths case, holding that criminal prosecution cannot continue when the accused has already been exonerated on merits in departmental proceedings on identical allegations. [2026 LiveLaw (Del) 638]
Justice Vikas Mahajan allowed the petition filed by Satender Kumar Srivastava, who was working as a Junior Engineer with the DJB at the time of the incident, and quashed the registered under Sections 304, 177, 218, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B IPC, along with offences under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The FIR was registered after three labourers died of asphyxiation while manually cleaning a sewer in Lajpat Nagar on August 6, 2017.
The prosecution alleged that the petitioner had directed the cleaning work without ensuring site supervision or providing mandatory safety equipment and had subsequently manipulated the logbook of a jetting machine to mislead the investigation.
Before the High Court, the petitioner argued that he had already been exonerated in disciplinary proceedings on the very same allegations.
The departmental inquiry concluded that the charges relating to negligence as well as manipulation of the logbook were not proved, and the disciplinary authority accepted the inquiry report and exonerated him in September 2020.
He further relied on an earlier judgment of the Delhi High Court quashing proceedings against the co-accused Assistant Engineer and Executive Engineer, who had also been exonerated in departmental proceedings.
The Court noted that the allegations in the criminal case and the departmental proceedings were identical. It observed that the inquiry officer had found no material to establish that the petitioner had authorised the sewer cleaning work, that the work was undertaken under his jurisdiction, or that he had manipulated the jetting machine logbook.
Relying on various Supreme Court decisions, the Court reiterated that where an employee is exonerated on merits in departmental proceedings on allegations identical to those in a criminal case, continuation of the criminal prosecution would amount to an abuse of the process of law because the standard of proof in criminal proceedings is higher than that in disciplinary proceedings.
As regards the offences under the Manual Scavengers Act and the SC/ST Act, the Court held that the said offences invoked are subservient or ancillary to the substantive offences under IPC, which cannot exist without the substantive or main offence.
Accordingly, the High Court quashed the FIR.
Appearance: Mr. N. Hariharan, Sr. Adv. with Mr. Varun Deswal, Ms. Punya Rekha Angara, Mr. Danish Khan, Mr. Aman Akhtar, Ms. Vasundhara N, Ms. Sana Singh, Ms. Vasundhara Raj Tyagi, Mr. Arjun Singh Mandela and Mr. Danish Khan, Advs. with petitioner in-person; Mr. Raghuinder Verma, APP for State with SI Vijay Tiwari, PS Lajpat Nagar, Delhi.
Case title: Satender Kumar Srivastava v. GNCTD
2026 LiveLaw (Del) 638
Case no.: CRL.M.C. 9362/2023