VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

318 DECISION - 88
(88)
(A) Departmental action and prosecution
A public servant who commits misconduct which
amounts to an offence can be prosecuted, but the
disciplinary authority is not precluded from
proceeding against him in departmental
proceedings.
(B) Departmental action and acquittal
Where accused officer is acquitted on a technical
ground relating to a procedural flaw or by giving
benefit of doubt, disciplinary proceeding on the same
charges can be initiated.
S. Krishnamurthy vs. Chief Engineer, S. Rly.,
AIR 1967 MAD 315
The appellant, Senior Clerk in the Southern Railway, was
prosecuted for an offence of bribery and was convicted by trial Court
but acquitted on appeal on a technical ground that there was defect
in the charge. Disciplinary proceedings were thereafter instituted
upon the same broad facts.
The Madras High Court considered the following points : (i)
Where a person has been prosecuted in a court of law and ultimately
acquitted, whether it is open to the department to institute
departmental proceedings on the same charge which was the subject
matter of trial in the court. In other words, whether an acquittal by a
criminal court for whatever reasons, operates as virtual exemption
from all other liabilities ensuing from the administrative action. (ii)
Whether departmental authorities can pursue disciplinary enquiry
which has relatively less safeguards and protection for the employee,
when it was open to them to have successfully prosecuted the
employee in a criminal court but failed.
The High Court held that the acquittal in the present case was not