A love triangle with in green room : HC deliveres justice
Photo used for indicative purpose only. Source internet
Shimla, June 23
Stories involving love triangles, betrayal and abuse of authority are usually associated with cinema rather than courtrooms. Yet a recent Himachal Pradesh High Court judgment arising out of disciplinary proceedings in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) reads like an extraordinary tale where personal relationships, hierarchy within a uniformed force and questions of fairness in punishment became intertwined.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has granted relief to a former ITBP constable by converting the punishment of removal from service into compulsory retirement with consequential benefits, nearly sixteen years after disciplinary action was initiated against him.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Bipin Chander Negi passed a 20 paged verdict on June 19 and found that while the constable had been punished for maintaining an illicit relationship with a spouse of his superior officer, the peculiar circumstances surrounding the episode and the role attributed to the superior officer could not be ignored while examining the proportionality of the punishment.
The case traces its origin to 2008 when constable Ashwani Kumar was serving as a security aide to Assistant Commandant Avinash Singh at Leh. Departmental proceedings later found him guilty of misconduct and violation of discipline, resulting in his removal from service in June 2010.
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During the hearing, however, the High Court examined records showing that the Assistant Commandant had also faced disciplinary proceedings arising out of the same episode. While he was exonerated of allegations that he had forced his wife to establish relations with the constable, he was found guilty of recording the sexual acts involving his wife and the constable on his laptop and was punished with forfeiture of two years of past service for pension purposes.
The Bench noted that the superior officer was fully aware of the relationship and had continued to keep the constable in his proximity. The Court also took note of statements on record indicating that the superior officer’s conduct had contributed to the circumstances that led to the disciplinary proceedings.
Observing that a junior employee could not be visited with a far more severe punishment than the superior officer in the peculiar facts of the case, the High Court held that the penalty of removal from service was excessive. The Bench consequently substituted the punishment with compulsory retirement and directed grant of consequential benefits.
The judgment reiterates that discipline remains the cornerstone of paramilitary forces, but disciplinary penalties must also satisfy the constitutional requirement of fairness and proportionality.The first two sentences create interest without sounding defamatory or sensational. They describe the facts emerging from the record rather than comparing real people to film characters.
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