Honourable acquittal alone can entitle job in forces: SC

Honourable acquittal alone can entitle job in forces: SC

Acquittal Due To Lack Of Evidence Not Enough: Top Court

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:07.10.2021

In an important judgment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a candidate would be entitled to join any of the security forces or police only if he has got an ‘honourable acquittal’ from the judiciary and not a mere acquittal due to lack of evidence or benefit of doubt.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari differentiated between ‘honourable’ and ‘mere’ acquittals, both terminologies emerging from judicial pronouncements as these do not find place in the criminal laws.

It said an honourable acquittal is one where the courts record that the person has been falsely implicated and that there is absolutely no evidence to link him to the crime.

However, a person is ‘acquitted’ for various other reasons including lack of sufficient evidence, benefit of doubt and prosecution witnesses turning hostile.

The bench reversed concurrent judgments of the single judge and division bench of Madhya Pradesh high court directing employment to be given to a person who was acquitted in a kidnapping case because the prosecution witnesses turned hostile.

The bench said it was not an honourable acquittal as the prosecution had alleged that the accused had indulged in physical violence against the witnesses, who in course of time turned hostile.

Writing the judgment, Justice Maheshwari said, “If a person is acquitted giving him the benefit of doubt, from the charge of an offence involving moral turpitude or because the witnesses turned hostile, it would not automatically entitle him for the employment, that too in disciplined force.”

“The employer has a right to consider his candidature in terms of the circulars issued by the Screening Committee. The mere disclosure of the offences alleged (by the candidate) and the result of the trial is not sufficient. In the said situation, the employer cannot be compelled to give an appointment to the candidate,” he said.

The SC said a person intending to join the police force must be a person of utmost rectitude and impeccable character and integrity. “A person having a criminal antecedents would not fit in this category. The employer has a right to consider the nature of acquittal or decide until he is completely exonerated because even a possibility of his taking to the life of crimes poses a threat to the discipline of the police force,” it said.

“If an acquittal is directed by the court on consideration of facts and material evidence on record with the finding of false implication or the finding that the guilt had not been proved, accepting the explanation of accused as just, it be treated as honourable acquittal. In other words, if prosecution could not prove the guilt for other reasons and was not ‘honourably’ acquitted by the court, it be treated other than ‘honourable’, and proceedings may follow,” it said.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari differentiated between ‘honourable’ and ‘mere’ acquittals, both terminologies emerging from judicial pronouncements as these do not find place in the criminal laws