The Delhi high court has upheld the dismissal of an Armyman from service, saying that there were no violations of procedures in his removal.
Earlier, a tribunal has ordered Pratap Singh’s dismissal as right and rejected his petition. Challenging the tribunal’s order, Singh moved the Delhi HC, which refused to give him the relief. Singh had argued that the Army could not cite the misconduct for his dismissal as it had waived future action against his past misbehaviour for all times to come.
After hearing the submissions from the Army and Singh, a division bench comprising Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Suresh Kait dismissed his plea saying the dismissal order had been passed by a competent authority and it was a reasoned one.
Not finding any merits in Singh’s petition, the division bench said there was no need for an inquiry when the facts were not in dispute and the past misconduct of an employee could be a ground for disciplinary action as the negative effect of wrongs in the past is revived when new ones are committed. The court said, “Before taking the action, a show-cause notice was served upon the petitioner and after considering the reply filed by him the action was taken, meaning thereby procedures of the law were followed.”