Watchman gets back his job at college

Appellate court had let him off despite confirming conviction by trial court

The Madras High Court Bench here has directed the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) to reinstate a government engineering college watchman, who was dismissed from service after he was convicted for assaulting the principal following a road accident involving his bicycle and the latter’s motorcycle in 2003.

Dismissing a writ appeal preferred by the Directorate, a Division Bench of the High Court held that the watchman A. John Antony Doss of Tirunelveli was entitled to reinstatement since an appellate court had let him off under the Probation of Offenders Act of 1958 despite confirming the conviction recorded by the trial court.

Writing the judgment for the Division Bench, Justice J. Nisha Banu pointed out that as per Section 12 of the 1958 Act, a person who had been let off either on probation of good conduct or after admonition should not suffer any disqualification attached to the conviction. She also referred to certain judicial precedents on the issue.

Though the DTE claimed that the watchman had indulged in certain irregularities too, the judge said that those issues could not be cited as a reason to dismiss him from service. She said that the officials could at the most impose a punishment of postponement of increment for two years without cumulative effect after reinstating him in service.

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