A five-member bench of Madras High Court today upheld by a 4-1 majority the ruling of a three-judge bench that Tamil Nadu Government had the right to reject candidates for police service if they had criminal antecedents.
The decision of the three-member bench was good in law and the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) had the right to deny appointments to candidates, as Police constables, if they had criminal antcedents, it held.
Justices R Sudhakar, M Sathyanarayanan, B Rajendran and A Selvam held that the explanation of rule 14(b)of the Tamil Nadu Special Police Subordinate Service Rules, was intra vires and a person acquitted on benefit of doubt or discharged in a criminal case can still be considered as disqualified for selection to the Police Service and the same could not be termed as illegal or unjustified.
However, Justice S Tamilvanan differed from the view of the four other judges and said if a person had been acquitted the charge framed against him was bad in law and it could not be said that he was involved in the criminal case, and denying him job on that ground would be violation of fundamental right.
Originally, fifteen candidates had moved the court, claiming that they cleared the written examination conducted by the TNUSRB and were declared physically fit. But they were denied jobs after it came to light during police verification that their names had featured in various criminal cases before being acquitted.
Justice S Nagamuthu, who heard the petitions, referred to conflicting judgements given by single judge and three-judge bench of this court and Supreme Court in the past on similar matter and held the constitutional validity of rule 14(b) (IV) could only be decided by a quorum of five or more judges and referred the matter to a larger bench.
The Special Government Pleader submitted that Rule 14 (b) (IV) does not permit candidates with a criminal background to be selected as police constables.
He pointed out that according to the Rules, "A person who is acquitted or discharged on benefit of doubt or due to the fact that the complainant 'turned hostile' shall be treated as a person involved in a Criminal Case".
The judges directed the registry to list the individual writ petitions review application before appropriate benches for disposal in terms of the order in reference.
