Rajasthan HC Sets Aside Termination Of Govt Employee For Appearing As Dummy Candidate In Exam, Says Charge Wasn't Included In Charge-Sheet

Rajasthan High Court set aside the order of a District Education Officer wherein the services of a Junior Assistant (Clerk Grade-II) (“Petitioner”) were terminated based on the fact that the ground on which the Petitioner was terminated was not appearing either in the charge sheet or in the inquiry report.

The bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta held that,

“In the opinion of this Court, when there was no charge in the memorandum of charges relating to petitioner's involvement as a dummy candidate and charge No.3 was only in relation to concealment from the respondents of his arrest in a criminal case, the disciplinary authority could not have proceeded on assumption of his guilt of appearing as a dummy candidate, more particularly, when neither the charge-sheet nor the inquiry report suggested the same.”

The Court was hearing a petition against the order of termination. The Petitioner was served with a charge sheet wherein the charges against the petitioner were of remaining absent from duty without sanctioned leave and concealing the fact of arrest in a criminal case registered against him for cheating, under Section 419 and 420, IPC. Inquiry report was submitted and a final order was passed wherein the petitioner was dismissed from services.

The counsel for the petitioner highlighted the charge sheet, inquiry report as well as the order of termination and held that the termination order was based on the Petitioner appearing as a dummy candidate in RPF SI Recruitment 2018, a charge that neither appeared in the charge sheet nor in the Inquiry report. The counsel submitted that it was a case of non-application of mind and the termination order was contrary to the facts as well as law.

On the contrary, the counsel appearing for the government argued that the disciplinary authority had taken all relevant facts while giving the termination order and the mentioning of the Petitioner appearing as a dummy candidate was an inadvertent error.

After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that,

“petitioner's involvement in some criminal case but such charge is only in relation to the fact that he did not inform the authority about his arrest whereas, the disciplinary authority has recorded a finding of his guilt of appearing as dummy candidate in RPF SI Recruitment, 2018.”

In this light, it was opined that since there was no charge in the charge sheet or the inquiry report about the Petitioner appearing as a dummy candidate, the disciplinary authority could not have proceeded based on that assumption. The Court held that this demonstrated that the authority did not appreciate factual matrix in the correct sense and merely proceeded based on its assumption.

Accordingly, the petition was allowed and the termination of the petitioner was set aside while directing the authority to pass a fresh order after considering facts on record. Till then, the petitioner was deemed to be in service.

Title: Dinesh Kumar v State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 6

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