SC orders appointment of man as constable in UP's PAC whose selection was cancelled for concealing info on criminal case
Supreme Court has ordered the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) authorities in Uttar Pradesh to appoint a man, whose selection was cancelled in 2005 for allegedly concealing information about a criminal case against him, as a constable.
The apex court noted that when the man had applied for the job on February 12, 2004, there was no criminal case registered or pending against him. However, five days after submitting the application, he got implicated in a criminal case in which he was subsequently acquitted by the trial court in September 2004.
«Broad-brushing every non-disclosure as a disqualification will be unjust and the same will tantamount to being completely oblivious to the ground realities obtaining in this great, vast and diverse country,» a bench of justices J K Maheshwari and K V Viswanathan said in its verdict delivered on Thursday.
The bench noted that the man, after being selected, was required to submit an affidavit disclosing criminal antecedents, if any, and he furnished the same on October 30, 2004 in which he stated that no criminal case has ever been registered against him.
It also noted that no appeal was filed against the trial court order acquitting him in the case.
The apex court set aside the October 2010 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which had dismissed his appeal against a single judge order which held that his subsequent acquittal in the case did not absolve him of the wrong he had committed by suppressing material information.
«On the facts of the case and in the backdrop
