'Criminal case no ground to terminate job'

Jaipur: The High Court on Monday ordered that pendency of criminal case is not sufficient ground for termination of job. Justice Manish Bhandari directed the RVVNL to reinstate a technical helper after he challenged his termination in court.
One Bharat Saini had joined RVVNL as technical helper on April 9, 2010. Two criminal cases were found against him during police verification and his job was immediately terminated.
Nigam sought character verification from the police. The police verification reported two criminal cases against him. The petitioner was soon terminated from service citing the pendency of the criminal case.
But in one of the cases, the petitioner has been acquitted from the charges before his termination.
The court said the post here is not in police or in Armed forces but is of technical helper in an electricity company. Besides, the petitioner was acquitted in one of the cases much prior to the order of termination.
The HC said the doubtful and unsatisfactory character needs to be drawn in reference to the alleged offence and not merely due to the pendency of the criminal cases and directed the RVVNL to reinstate him in service.