Rajasthan High Court sets aside termination of govt employee for appearing as dummy candidate in exam, says charge was not included in chargesheet

The Rajasthan High Court in the case Dinesh Kumar v State of Rajasthan & Ors observed and has set aside the order of a District Education Officer wherein the services of a Junior Assistant, the Petitioner i.e., Clerk Grade-II were terminated based on the fact that the ground on which the Petitioner was terminated was not appearing either in the charge sheet or in the inquiry report.

The bench headed by Justice Dinesh Mehta in the case held that when there being no charge in the memorandum of charges which relates to the involvement of petitioner as a dummy candidate and charge No.3 was only in relation to concealment from the respondents of his arrest in a criminal case, thus, the disciplinary authority could not have proceeded on assumption of his guilt of appearing as a dummy candidate, more particularly, when neither the charge-sheet nor the inquiry report suggested the same.

In the present matter, the court was hearing the petition filed against the order of termination.