Suspension/removal of government servants solely for pending criminal cases without due process violates service rules and natural justice; reinstatement ordered.

Common Order

The writ petitions are filed for the petitioner seeking directions to the respondents to reinstate the petitioners by quashing the impugned orders.

2. It is the case of the petitioners that they were working as government servant in the respective department and were suspended from service on the sole ground that criminal case was pending on them.

3. Heard the learned counsel on either side and perused the materials available on record.

4. The very same issue involved in these writ petitions has been dealt by this Court in a batch of writ petitions in W.P.Nos.2889 of 2025, etc., batch, wherein, it is observed as follows:

“48. For the reasons aforesaid, all the writ petitions are allowed with the following directions :-

i) The respective impugned orders passed by the Commission cancelling the provisional selection and allotment and invalidating the OMR answer sheet of the petitioners are set aside;

ii) The impugned orders passed by the respective appointing authorities removing the respective petitioners from service are also set aside holding that the said orders are passed without following the service rules and in violation of principles of natural justice;

iii) The respective appointing authorities are directed to reinstate the petitioners in service forthwith and upon such reinstatement, if so advised, the respective appointing authorities are at liberty to initiate disciplinary action against the respective petitioners for the delinquency, alleged to have been committed by the petitioners and proceed against the respective petitioners in accordance with the relevant service rules governing the petitioners;

iv) If disciplinary proceedings have already been initiated against any of the petitioners, then the appointing authorities shall take steps to conclude the disciplinary proceedings initiated as expeditiously as possible in accordance with the relevant service rules governing the said petitioners;

v) The Commission is at liberty to proceed against the petitioners subject to the outcome of the criminal trial;

vi) Upon cognizance being taken of the charge sheet by the concerned Court, the trial court is directed to proceed with the said trial and complete the same as expeditiously as possible and the petitioners herein are directed to cooperate with the trial court for completion of the trial as expeditiously as possible;

vii) The CBI is directed to place a copy of this order before the concerned trial court before which the charge sheet is pending cognizance so as to enable the concerned Court to proceed forthwith with the matter in accordance with law;

viii) Consequently, connected miscellaneous petitions are closed. There shall be no order as to costs.”

The aforesaid common order dated 05.02.2026 squarely applies on all fours to the cases in hand and therefore, these writ petitions are allowed.