Posted: 28 Feb 2016 07:08 PM PST
Employee entitled for backwages if conviction set aside: Madras HC
The Madras High Court has ruled
that an employee removed from service due to conviction in a corruption
case by the trial court is entitled for back wages if he wins his
appeal in an appellate court.
Besides if the employee wins
the appeal on merit, he is entitled for continuity of service also,
justices S Manikumar and C T Selvamof the Madurai bench said, dismissing
a writ appeal by Executive Officer of Mamsapuram Panchayat against a
single judge’s 2013 order to reinstate an employee who was dismissed in
2008.
The principle of “no work, no
pay” cannot be applied in every case. Every employee reinstated in
service on acquittal cannot be denied back wages and continuity of
service. Once the conviction is set aside by an appellate court, the
stigma is removed, the judges said.
The employee should be restored
to his original position as if he was not removed and continued to be
in service all along, the Judges said.
They disagreed with the
Executive Officer’s contention that the single judge had exceeded his
constitutional authority by ordering back wages.
A Special Court in Virudhunagar
had convicted the Panchayat’s Sanitary Supervisor Solaiappan on
November 24, 2005 and the local body had removed him from service on
December 22, 2008.
In the meantime he got his
conviction set aside on April 11, 2011 on the ground that the
prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubts and
the sanction granted for prosecuting him was not in order.
Two years later he filed another petition in the High Court which allowed it and directed his reinstatement.
( Source – PTI )legal India
