ASWIN.S.R Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The unsuccessful writ petitioner is the appellant herein. He had sought for a direction to the respondent Bank to reinstate him in service as his services were terminated on the ground that he suppressed the material fact of not mentioning the pendency of the criminal case in the relevant forms at the time of entering into service as a Peon at the Bank.

(2.) The short facts leading to the Writ Appeal are as follows: The appellant was appointed as a Peon in the State Bank of Travancore. Earlier, a criminal case was registered against him which was suppressed by him while submitting his bio-data prior to the appointment. On this ground, the petitioner was served with a show cause notice to which the petitioner took a stand that the questions were only whether the appellant had been convicted for an offence and whether any case which was pending against him involved moral turpitude and the negative answers given by him were justified as correct, therefore, the proposal for termination of his services was bad. When an order of termination was passed, he challenged the said order in Writ Petition No. 36568 of 2015 wherein by Ext. P10 judgment dated 16th March 2017, this Court directed a reconsideration by the bank in the light of the parameters laid down in paragraph 38 of the judgment reported in Avtar Singh v. Union of India and Others [(2016) 8 SCC 471].

(3.) The bank again considered the matter pursuant to the judgment and after a personal hearing, passed Ext. P11 communication dated 28-7-2017 finding that the action of the petitioner in not revealing the pendency of the criminal case against him amounts to deliberate suppression of a vital aspect and that a person guilty of such conduct cannot be appointed as an employee of the Bank and accordingly, the request made by the petitioner for re-instatement was rejected. Challenging Ext. P11, the Writ Petition was filed.