Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has ruled that a candidate cannot be deprived of a govt job merely on the basis of a pending criminal case which is of a simple nature, especially when he has himself given information about the case.A single bench of Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar passed the verdict on a service petition filed by Rakesh Kumar Verma. It was submitted that the petitioner was selected for the post of junior assistant by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission and was found medically fit. Despite this, he was denied appointment based on a pending criminal case.The petitioner pleaded that from perusal of the FIR it comes out that only general and sweeping allegations have been made regarding demand of dowry against all the family members, without assigning any specific role to the petitioner.It was added that the offences alleged were punishable under sections 498-A, 323, 504, 506 IPC and Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, which, though cognizable, did not in the facts of the present case appeared to be of such gravity so as to render the petitioner unsuitable for public employment.Allowing the petition, the bench said, “The allegations, on the face of record, appear to be trivial in nature and arise out of a domestic dispute, having no bearing on the discharge of duties attached to the post in question.”
