‘Honourable acquittal in case not enough to become a cop’

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy before whom the intra-court appeal came up for hearing, said: “The single judge also took note of a full bench judgment wherein the scope of Rule 14(b) of the TN Special Police Subordinate Service Rules, 1978 was considered and it was held that even a person who is acquitted on the benefit of the doubt in a criminal case could be disqualified for selection to the police service if he failed to disclose the criminal antecedents in his application form.” The appellant B Santhosh had moved the plea challenging his rejection of the application to the post of Grade II Police Constable (TSP) for the year 2019 on the ground of non-disclosure of criminal cases that have been prosecuted against him. He had contended that those criminal cases had resulted in an acquittal on the ground that the witnesses for the prosecution turned hostile.

However, the single judge on taking note of the fact that the three criminal cases related to offences under the Indian Penal Code and that the acquittal of the appellant was not because it was found that he had not committed the offences in question, but on the ground that the prosecution witnesses turned hostile.

The single judge in his order also held that even honourable acquittal in a criminal case would not absolve a person from the stigma.