‘Vendetta’: Delhi HC scraps CISF officer’s forced retirement; restores pension and service till superannuation

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has quashed a 20-year-old official order to compulsorily retire a CISF officer, now 72, over sexual harassment, ruling that the allegations made in 1998 by a woman constable "reek of vengeance rather than genuine harassment".

HC also found that even after being cleared three times, senior officers constituted yet another preliminary probe to hold then assistant commandant R S Yadav guilty and terminated his service.


'CISF officer to be deemed to have served until age of superannuation'

In a recent verdict, the court noted that the letter by the woman complainant was "motivated or actuated by some ulterior motive, maybe because of the fact that the petitioner initiated action against her. The possibility that the exaggerated, if not false, complaint was filed because of the warning issued to her cannot be ruled out."

HC restored the pension and said: Considering that 25 years have passed and the petitioner is now 72 years old, "we feel that the least we can do is to restore his honour, which according to us, was destroyed by the action of ordering 'compulsory retirement'." The court said Yadav prayed that except for restoring the honour, he is not interested in any monetary gain and he would not ask for any consequential benefits and would remain satisfied with whatever pension or monetary benefits he is getting. The court said Yadav shall be deemed to have served the CISF until he attained the age of superannuation.

"The period between the date of compulsory retirement and that of attaining superannuation shall be notionally counted in his service. His pension shall be revised accordingly. Though he shall not get arrears, he shall be entitled to get consequential revised pension," it added.

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