VINOD Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Non disclosure of pending criminal cases by the candidates seeking employment - which they were obligated to do statutorily as per the notifications inviting applications or through the extant Regulations; and consequent terminations, have very often reached the High Courts and answered in subtly different manner.

(2.) Some High Courts have taken the view that mere registration of a criminal case and its non- disclosure ipso facto cannot visit a candidate with dire consequences, when the applicable notifications/Regulations only provided such disclosure to be made when arrests had been recorded; while certain other Courts have taken the view that such deliberate non-disclosure of a pending case is to be viewed seriously.

(3.) The Hon'ble Supreme Court, in the year 2016, delivered the judgment in Avtar Singh v. Union of India [(2016) 8 SCC 471], clearing the air of confusion and specifically stipulating how employers are to act in such situation.