Acquittal in criminal case can undo departmental penalty only if both rests on substantially identical facts: Karnataka High Court

The High Court of Karnataka has observed that the acquittal of a public servant in a criminal case can affect the validity of a departmental penalty only when both the departmental inquiry and the criminal proceedings are based on substantially identical facts and circumstances.

While a criminal acquittal does not ordinarily result in the automatic setting aside of a departmental penalty, the position changes where the charges, evidence, witnesses and circumstances are identical or substantially similar, the court said.

The impact of an acquittal in a criminal case on the outcome of a departmental inquiry “would depend on the facts of each case and, more particularly, upon whether the charge, the substratum of allegations, the evidence, the witnesses and the documents in the criminal trial and the departmental inquiry are the same or substantially the same,” the court said.