Case:- Bir Singh v/s State of H.P. & Ors.
Citation:- CWP No.7099 of 2023
Date:- 03.09.2025
Himachal Pradesh High Court Bench:- JUSTICE SANDEEP SHARMA
The Hon’ble Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that pendency of a criminal case, where no charge sheet has been filed, cannot be a ground to deny promotion to an employee exonerated of all charges in the departmental inquiry.
- The present case involved Head Constable Chande Ram, who faced allegations of mishandling case property in connection with a 2002 NDPS case where large quantities of ‘charas’ were seized.
- During appeal in the NDPS case, doubts arose when the locks produced by police didn’t match the keys, creating suspicion of tampering. This led to an inquiry against police officials. Based on this, an FIR was registered under Sections 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust) and 120-B IPC (criminal conspiracy) against Chande Ram and others.
- A departmental inquiry was conducted and in 2012, Chande Ram was fully exonerated of all charges. The police, however, kept filing “untraced reports”, which were not accepted by the Magistrate, who instead ordered further investigation.
- Despite being cleared in the departmental proceedings, Chande Ram was denied promotion, citing pendency of the criminal case. Aggrieved, he approached the Hon’ble High Court, arguing that without a chargesheet and after departmental clearance, promotion cannot be withheld.
- The Hon’ble Court observed that No chargesheet has been filed till date, Mere pendency of investigation cannot block promotion and held that once cleared in departmental inquiry, denial of promotion is unjust.
- The Hon’ble Court allowed the petition and directed that the petitioner’s promotion cannot be withheld on these grounds.
