In a significant judgment, the Rajasthan High Court has come to the rescue of a police constable who was denied his salary for the period he spent in judicial custody, despite being acquitted of all criminal charges. The court held that treating the detention period as “leave without pay” was arbitrary and unjust.
The case involved Harbajan Singh, a constable posted in Ajmer, who was arrested in August 2000 in connection with a criminal case. He remained in judicial custody for nearly two years until his acquittal in August 2002. Although he was reinstated and later exonerated in a departmental enquiry, the disciplinary authority granted him full pay only for the suspension period but treated the actual custody period as absence without pay.
Challenging this order, Singh approached the High Court. Justice Anand Sharma, after examining Rule 54 of the Rajasthan Service Rules, 1951, and relying on Supreme Court and Allahabad High Court precedents, observed that an employee who is detained through no fault of his own and is later acquitted should not be financially penalized.
“Where detention is the cause of non-performance and the accused is ultimately acquitted, equity demands that the employee should not be saddled with financial prejudice,” the court stated. It emphasized that the “no work no pay” principle cannot be applied mechanically in cases where absence is involuntary.
The court found the disciplinary authority’s order self-contradictory and quashed the clause that denied salary for the custody period. The Ajmer Police Department has now been directed to treat the entire period from arrest to reinstatement as duty for all purposes and release all pending pay and allowances within ten weeks.
Read also:- Kolkata Lawyers Stage Court Boycott Following Brutal Police Attack on Advocate
This judgment reinforces the legal protection available to government employees who face wrongful prosecution and highlights the duty of the state to ensure fairness in service matters.
Case Title: Harbajan Singh Vs. Superintendent of Police, Ajmer
Case No: S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 7146 of 2003
