Delhi HC restores ex-CISF officer's 'honour', quashes forced retirement
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has restored the 'honour' of a 72-year-old former CISF officer, who was forced to retire 20 years ago over allegations of sexually harassing a woman colleague, saying the complaint appeared to be motivated.
The high court said the charge levelled against the petitioner was not proved, and even if it is presumed that it has been found to be proved by the enquiry officer, the punishment as grave as compulsory retirement ought not to have been imposed.
"Having regard to the fact that a period of about 25 years (since the allegation) has since passed and the petitioner has attained 72 years of age, we feel that the least we can do is, to restore his honour, which according to us, has been destroyed by the action of ordering 'compulsory retirement'," a bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vimal Kumar Yadav said in an order passed on December 19.
The bench said it feels that the letter by the complainant was motivated or actuated by some ulterior motive, maybe because of the fact that the petitioner had initiated action against her.
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"The possibility that the exaggerated, if not false, complaint was filed because of the warning issued to her cannot be ruled out. Such defence, which appeared plausible, has not been given any credence by the investigating officer," it said, adding the allegations "reek of vengeance rather than genuine harassment".
The court passed the order on a plea by the petitioner, ex-assistant commandant in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), challenging an October 2005 order of Deputy Inspector General (L&R) by which he was compulsorily retired from service. The petition was filed in 2006.
The court noted the petitioner prayed that, except for restoring the honour, he is not interested in any monetary gain, and he would not ask for any consequential benefits and remain satisfied with whatever pension or monetary benefits he is getting.
The high court quashed the 2005 order and also the enquiry report of 2004 while holding that the conducting of the third preliminary enquiry and consequential disciplinary enquiry was itself uncalled for and the finding recorded by the enquiry officer was not in accordance with the evidence.
“Consequent to the quashing of the order of compulsory retirement, the petitioner shall be deemed to have served the respondents until he attained the age of superannuation. The period between the date of compulsory retirement (October 26, 2005) and his date of attaining superannuation shall be notionally counted in his service. However, his pension shall be revised accordingly. Though he shall not get arrears of the pension, but shall be entitled to get consequential revised pension with effect from March 1, 2026," it said.
The bench noted that two of the three preliminary enquiries had exonerated the petitioner and said it did not find any sufficient reason or cause for the authorities to have ordered a third preliminary enquiry.
"The respondents ought to have given quietus to the issue, given the nature of allegations which reek of vengeance rather than genuine harassment. Moreso, there is no allegation of a serious nature," it said.
The woman constable had made a representation to the authorities in November 1999, levelling allegations against the petitioner of an attempt to develop an illicit relationship and passing inappropriate remarks against her.
The petitioner had claimed that the complaint was motivated and made with an attempt to falsely implicate him, because as a strict officer, he had tried to bring in discipline and curb theft and malpractices and had issued a warning letter to the complainant.
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Answer to 'abject surrender' lies in 'grips', 'chokes' placed on PM: Rahul on India-US trade deal
New Delhi (PTI): Stepping up his attack on the government over the interim US trade deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the answer to why Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to a deal, where India gives so much and appears to get so little, and make an "abject surrender" lies in the "grips" and "chokes" placed on him.
The leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha also claimed that with this deal, India is going to become a "data colony".
Gandhi, who has been attacking the BJP-led government and accusing it of a sell-out through the deal, posted a video on X in which he invoked his recent speech in Parliament in which he had drawn a Jiu-Jitsu analogy.
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In his post on X, Gandhi said, "Why did I use a Jiu-Jitsu analogy in my Parliament speech on the trade deal? Why were our farmers sacrificed to please the Americans? Why was India's energy security compromised by allowing the US to dictate our oil supplies?"
"Why agree to increase US imports by $100 billion a year without a reciprocal promise? Why did I say this deal could turn India into a data colony? Why would Modi ji agree to a deal where India gives so much and appears to get so little? The answer to this abject surrender lies in the "grips" and "chokes" placed on the PM.
In the video, Gandhi said a lot of people have asked him why he used a Jiu-Jitsu analogy in his Parliament speech.
"The reason I used the idea of a grip and a choke is because these exist in Jiu-Jitsu and how you control an opponent in that sport. But they also exist in the political realm. And in my experience of politics, I have seen political grips and political chokes are mostly hidden. The average person cannot see them," he said.
"And you have to look carefully to see where the choke is being applied and where the grips are placed. So that was the idea behind using this. It expressed very powerfully what our prime minister is going through," he said.
The LoP said that on the one hand is the criminal case against businessman Gautam Adani in the US and on the other hand is the Epstein scandal.
"Three million files not released. We all know that (Union minister) Hardeep Puri is involved in the files, we know Mr. Anil Ambani is involved in the files and we also know the prime minister's name appears and the PM is most likely involved in the files," he said.
On the other side, there is China, Gandhi said and referred to the unreleased book of former Army chief MM Naravane.
"So on one side there is the Chinese who are sitting in our border and on the other side there is the US. Our PM is torn between these grips. He is trapped, everybody knows it, everybody can see it. The problem is that the real grip on Mr Narendra Modi is the fake image that he has built, that has been built for him, an image that has required huge amounts of money," he said.
"The key to that image is now in the hands of the US and that is why Indian farmers are going to suffer, Indian textile is going to suffer, we will be forced to buy imports from the US.
"But most important is the data. The fact that our data is being handed over by Mr Narendra Modi to American companies, to the US, for a pittance. Mark my words, we are going to become a data colony. Why did a country of the size of India hand away everything, including our data, textile industry and our agriculture sector, for what and why? The answer is in the grips and chokes that are applied on the PM," Gandhi added.
The Congress has alleged that Modi has "surrendered" before US President Donald Trump in agreeing to the deal, which, it claimed, will "devastate" the livelihoods of crores of farmers across states and sacrifice India's energy security, digital sovereignty and economic self-reliance.
It said trade agreements should not become a path to slavery by "sacrificing a country's sovereignty", and asserted that national interest cannot be mortgaged under the guise of a trade pact.
