Nagpur: In a landmark judgment protecting the fundamental rights of Central and semi-govt employees, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Monday held that a pending criminal case arising from a matrimonial dispute cannot justify withholding an employee’s promotion in the absence of allegations of service misconduct, corruption or moral turpitude.
“A pending matrimonial dispute against the petitioner would not be sufficient to deprive him from getting a promotion,” the judges held. A division bench of Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Raj Wakode quashed the decision of Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Ltd (MECL) to keep the departmental promotion committee (DPC) result of its senior manager in a sealed cover. The court directed the company to declare the result and decide his promotion. Referring to Supreme Court judgments, including Union of India versus K V Jankiraman and Union of India versus Anil Kumar Sarkar, the bench reiterated mere pendency of disciplinary or criminal proceedings is not sufficient to withhold promotion. The sealed-cover procedure can be adopted after a charge-memo in disciplinary proceedings or a chargesheet in a criminal prosecution has been issued, subject to applicable rules. The court also noted there was no allegation of misconduct against the husband during his service and no allegation of corruption, misappropriation or conduct involving moral turpitude.