A government employee removed from service on account of his conviction in a corruption case by a trial court is entitled to back wages as well as continuity of service if an appellate court sets aside the conviction on merits, the Madras High Court Bench here has held.
Writ appeal dismissed
A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and C.T. Selvam passed the order while dismissing a writ appeal preferred by Executive Officer of Mamsapuram Panchayat in Virudhunagar district against a single judge’s 2013 order to reinstate an employee who was removed from service in 2008.
“There is no hard and fast rule that the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ has to be applied in every case, and every employee reinstated in service, on acquittal, should be denied back wages and continuity of service… Once the conviction is set aside by an appellate court, the stigma is removed.
“Thus, the employee should be restored to his original position as if he was not removed and continued to be in service all along,” the Bench said while disagreeing with the Executive Officer’s contention that the single judge had exceeded his constitutional authority by ordering back wages.
Set aside
Penning the judgment for the Bench, Mr. Justice Manikumar pointed out that a Special Court in Virudhunagar had convicted the Panchayat’s sanitary supervisor Solaiappan on November 24, 2005 and the local body had removed him from service on December 22, 2008.
In the meantime, the convict preferred a criminal appeal before the High Court and got his conviction set aside on April 11, 2011 on the ground that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubts and the sanction granted for prosecuting him was not in order.
The judgment had attained finality since the prosecution did not go on appeal to the Supreme Court.
Therefore, he filed a writ petition in 2012 and obtained favourable orders for reinstatement, continuity of service and back wages which were under challenge in the present writ appeal.
“Once the conviction is set aside by an appellate court, the stigma is removed”
