Patna, Aug 14 (PTI) The Patna High Court has ordered the reinstatement of a CRPF personnel who was dismissed from the service on account of being absent from duty for 196 days to take care of his mother, a cancer patient.
Taking a “sympathetic approach” towards the constable, a division bench comprising Justices P B Bajanthri and Alok Kumar Pandey also directed that its order be implemented within three months.
The CRPF employee Sumit Kumar had moved court after the force dismissed him in 2013.
“The concerned respondents are hereby directed to reinstate the service of the appellant and regulate services in accordance with law including extending monetary benefits to the appellant,” the court said in its August 13 order.
Setting aside a single bench order of 2019, the division bench also directed his unauthorised absence be treated as leave.
The court said, on several occasions, the appellant sought an extension of the leaves through the post but he was declared absconder on account of absence from duty between May 23, 2012 and December 4, 2012 without any sanctioned leave for the period of 196 days, and the unauthorised absence of the appellant from duty led to the initiation of a departmental inquiry.
The departmental inquiry dismissed Kumar from the service, which a Single Bench of the High Court subsequently upheld.
Kumar then filed an appeal challenging the order of the single bench of HC before the Division Bench.
“In the present case, the appellant is found to be absent from duty and he gave an explanation that his mother was diagnosed with Cancer and he had applied for leave for treatment of his mother and it was beyond his control,” the bench observed.
Kumar’s absence from duty cannot be equated with anyone who is said to be absent from duty unauthorisedly, the division bench observed. PTI COR PKD SBN NN SBN
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