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2023 Supreme(Online)(DEL) 3006
IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Judgment reserved on: March 01, 2023 Judgment delivered on: March 28, 2023 + W.P.(C) 10022/2022, CM APPLs. 29201/2022 & 29203/2022 MANOJ PAUL ..... Petitioner Through: Ms. Vrinda Bhandari and Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Advocates.
versus DELHI METRO RAIL CORPORATION & ANR. ..... Respondents Through: Mr. Sameer Vashisht, ASC (Civil), GNCTD with Mr. Vanshay Kaul, Advocate for R-2.
Mr. V.S.R. Krishna and Mr. V. Shashank Kumar, Advocates for DMRC.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE V. KAMESWAR RAO HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANOOP KUMAR MENDIRATTA
J U D G M E N T
ANOOP KUMAR MENDIRATTA, J.
1. By way of present writ petition, petitioner assails order dated April 21, 2022 passed by Central Administrative Tribunal (in short „Tribunal‟) in O.A. No.2517/2021. Petitioner vide aforesaid O.A. challenged the order dated October 20, 2021 passed by respondent No.1 (DMRC) in compliance of order dated September 10, 2021 passed by the Tribunal in O.A. No.1977/2021, thereby withdrawing and cancelling the offer of appointment of the petitioner to the post of Junior Engineer/Environment on account of suppression of furnishing of material information regarding criminal involvements.
2. Facts culminating in filing of the present writ petition may be briefly noticed:
i. Based upon performance in the Computer Based Test dated February 17, 2020, petitioner was empanelled provisionally to participate in the next stage of document verification and pre- appointment medical examination for the post of Junior Engineer/Environment and was called for joining on July 20, 2021 on being found medically fit.
ii. Thereafter, at the time of checking of documents, it was noticed that petitioner in the attestation form had responded to questions in Column Nos.12(i)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(i) and 12(i) as under:
| 12(i) | (a) | Have you ever been arrested? | Yes✓/No |
| (b) | Have you ever been prosecuted? | Yes✓/No | |
| (c) | Have you ever been kept under detention? | Yes✓/No | |
| (d) | Have you ever been bound down? | Yes/No✓ | |
| (e) | Have you ever been fined by a Court of Law? | Yes/No✓ | |
| (f) | Have you ever been convicted by a Court of Law for any notice? | Yes/No✓ | |
| (i) | Is any case pending against you in any court of Law or any FIR against you at the time of filling up this Attestation Form? | Yes✓/No | |
| 12 | (i) | If, the answer to any of the above mentioned questions is Yes give full particulars of the case/arrested/detention/fine/conviction/sent- ence/punishment etc. and/or the nature of the case pending of the court/ university/ Educational Authority etc. at the time of filling up this form. | (No space to fill details.) |
The Attestation Form also contained a warning that Furnishing of false information or suppression of any factual information in the Attestation Form would be a disqualification and is likely to render the candidate unfit for employment under the Government. Further, if it comes to the notice at any time during service of a person that false information has been furnished or there has been suppression of any factual information in the attestation form, the services would be liable to be terminated.
iii. Thereafter, on a query from the Department, petitioner informed that four FIRs were filed against him, in which he was acquitted in January, 2019 and five FIRs were pending against him in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Port Blair and also submitted copies of said FIRs.
iv. It may also be noticed that the petitioner while submitting the online application form on December 14, 2019 for the post of Junior Engineer/Environment incorrectly responded „no‟, with reference to the question, „have you ever been arrested/prosecuted/kept under detention or convicted, fined by a court of law or barred from any examination or rusticated by any University‟.
v. Since, the order of appointment of the petitioner was kept in abeyance, he initially preferred a Writ Petition before the High Court of Delhi, which was dismissed as withdrawn granting liberty to the petitioner to approach the Tribunal. Thereupon an O.A. No.1977/2021 was preferred by the petitioner before the Tribunal for issuance of appointment letter by respondent No. 1, which was disposed of vide order dated September 10, 2021 with the following directions:-
“6. In the aforesaid facts and circumstances, with the consent of the parties, the present OA is disposed of with liberty to the applicant to supply all the relevant information, copies of the FIRs against him, the decisions of the competent court on those FIRs, if any, as expediti
