The Central Administrative Tribunal has ordered the Centre to reinstate a sepoy of the Secretariat Security Force (SSF), who had been dismissed from service for allegedly molesting a Japanese girl while he was posted at the Indian Embassy in Japan.
The Tribunal directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take him back by setting aside orders of the disciplinary and appellate authorities which had imposed on him the punishment of compulsory retirement and then dismissal from service respectively.
The CAT bench awarded the relief to SSF sepoy Babu Lal Yadav, saying the "basic ingredients" of a departmental proceeding were not followed by the authorities and the enquiry was held in violation of the rules.
"In the absence of basic ingredients of a departmental proceeding, i.E., examination and cross-examination of the witnesses, no enquiry proceedings are worth its name. There is no question of the disciplinary authority agreeing/disagreeing with the enquiry officer's report based on the proceedings held in violation of the rules.
"For the same reason, the subsequent order of the disciplinary authority imposing the penalty upon the applicant (Yadav) and the order of the appellate authority rejecting the applicant's appeal are also not sustainable," a bench of CAT members George Paracken and Shekhar Agarwal said.
41-year-old Yadav was accused of molesting an 18-year-old Japanese girl who had gone to the Indian Embassy in Japan for a tourist visa.
According to the charges levelled against Yadav, on September 9, 2005 when the girl had gone to the Indian embassy for a visa, he had taken her into a room and had molested her.
Subsequent to the charges, Yadav was sent back to India as the Japanese government had declared him as a 'not acceptable person'.
