No Room For One Who Tries To Seek Employment In Disciplined Forces By Concealing Material Fact About Criminal Antecedents: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that there is no room for an individual who endeavours to seek employment in disciplined forces by concealing material fact about his or her criminal antecedents.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Manoj Jain observed that there has to be strict obedience towards disclosure about criminal antecedents by anyone seeking employment in disciplined forces.

The court made the observations while dismissing a plea moved by a sub-Inspector (GD) who joined Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in 2014 challenging the authorities' order passed in 2016 terminating his services with immediate effect.

It was the authorities' case that he claimed that he was as never involved in any criminal case when he was asked to submit verification documents.

Dismissing the plea, the bench observed that there was deliberate suppression of material fact with respect to a criminal case which was pending at the time when the forms were filled up by petitioner and thus, the authorities were justified in terminating him.

“As already noticed above, the petitioner cannot plead ignorance about such previous case in which he was arrested and even remained behind the bars. Even if for a moment, it is assumed that the query contained in 12(a) of Verification Roll Form in English version was complex as several questions had been interwoven, fact remains that same form also contained the same query in Hindi which conveyed everything very appropriately. Moreover, in Enrolment Form, the questions had been bifurcated which removed possibility of any uncertainty or ambiguity,” the court said.

It added: “Before parting, we may add that there has to be strict obedience towards such type of disclosure by anyone seeking employment in disciplined forces and, invariably, there is no room for the one who endeavours to seek employment by concealing material fact about his criminal antecedents.”

Title: BINEET SINGH BISHT v. UNION OF INDIA AND ANR.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1280

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