Promotion Can't Be Denied When Criminal Case Is Pending Without Chargesheet Being Framed: HP High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that pendency of a criminal case, where no charge sheet has been filed, cannot be a ground to deny promotion to an employee exonerated of all charges in the departmental inquiry.Justice Sandeep Sharma noted that: “Admittedly no charge sheet has been served upon the petitioner. Though the Magistrate concerned is well within his/her right to order further investigation, such fact, if any, cannot be a ground for the respondents to deny promotion to the higher post, especially when charge has not been framed till date,”In 2002, an NDPS case was registered against one Chande Ram after 1 quintal, 7 kilograms, and 500 cannabis was recovered from him. The trial court sentenced him to a punishment of 20 years. Aggrieved by the Trial Court's order, he filed an appeal. During the appeal, division bench of the High Court asked the prosecution to produce the locks that were allegedly used on the door of shed from where the charas was recovered. Even though the locks were produced from the storehouse of the police, the keys did not match the lock which led to suspicion about tampering or mishandling of case property.Thereafter due to the discrepancies, the division bench directed the Director General of Police to conduct an inquiry against all police officials who were in charge of the police storehouse during the relevant period. Based on this, an FIR was registered against the petitioner under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public) and 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), for mismanagement of case property who is currently working as Honorary Head Constable along with other 7 people who were the co-accused. An inquiry was conducted against the officials and after that the petition was exonerated on 02.04.2012. The investigating agency filed untraced reports, however those were not accepted by the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lahaul & Spiti at Kullu, Himachal Pradesh and the police was directed to further investigate the matter. Later on the petitioner was not considered for promotion to the post of HASI, despite there being exoneration of the petitioner in the Departmental proceedings. Aggrieved from the denial for promotion, he filed a writ petition before the High Court, contending that once the departmental inquiry had cleared the officer, and no charge-sheet was filed, promotion could not be denied.The Court observed that, no charge sheet has been served upon the petitioner, rather on three occasions investigating agency has filed untraced report, but Magistrate concerned being not satisfied with the untraced report has ordered for further investigation.Thus, the petitioner allowed the petition. Case Name: Bir Singh v/s State of H.P. & Ors. Case No.: CWP No. 7099 of 2023Date of Decision: 03.09.2025For the Petitioner: Mr. Kashmir Singh Thakur, Senior Advocate with Mr. Vijay Thakur, AdvocateFor the Respondents: Mr. Rajan Kahol, Mr. Vishal Panwar and Mr. B.C.Verma, Additional Advocate Generals, with Mr. Ravi Chauhan, Deputy Advocate General.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Promotion Can't Be Denied When Criminal Case Is Pending Without Chargesheet Being Framed: HP High Court

Mehak Aggarwal

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