Kolkata: Eleven years after an on-duty CISF constable lost his job following a scuffle with another constable with a CISF offier at the New Delhi metro station, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed his reinstatement and stated that a minor penalty would suffice.
The division bench of justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Partha Sarathi Chatterjee weighed the seriousness of the offence in consideration. The constable was removed in 2014 by an order of the disciplinary authority on March 28, 2014, which was upheld by the appellate authority on May 13, 2014.
The authority's counsel contended that the on-duty constable should not have acted in an erratic manner.
According to the division bench, a serious offence includes acts of corruption or misappropriation. However, the man's integrity was never doubted and the misconduct did not include "pecuniary loss, fraud or gross negligence." The bench held that his case was dismissed just by viewing CCTV footage, which did not record the preceding or succeeding events.
The bench considered that the man was around 43-year-old now and the punishment would affect his livelihood. The judges observed that "the aggravating and mitigating factors" were not dealt with.