NEW DELHI: The Railway Board has directed one of its zones to terminate an employee who was reappointed after suppressing facts about his previous dismissal.
In a written communication to all the zones, the board said a zonal railway discovered that prior to a person’s appointment, he had already been employed in another railway zone and had been dismissed from that employment.
It was discovered that prosecution for a criminal charge relating to the period of his service in the previous employment was also pending against him.
These details were not disclosed by the appointee in his attestation form, and during the re-appointment process, he had been convicted in the criminal case in question, the board said, adding that he suppressed this information as well.
Disciplinary proceedings were initiated by authorities when facts came to light, and the appointee was removed from service, as was confirmed by the Appellate Authority, according to the communication.
When, surprisingly, the zonal revisionary authority set aside the Appellate Authority’s order and reinstated the appointee, the zonal railway referred the case to the Railway Board for ‘review’ under the relevant rule.
According to officials, the board observed that the course of action adopted in the case was not correct.
The board noted, “The person concerned had secured appointment by suppressing facts of his previous employment/dismissal therefrom in the attestation form.”
It added that his appointment itself was “void ab initio” (void from the beginning), as dismissal from service ordinarily means “disqualification for future employment under the government or railway administration”.
According to the Railway Board, as the appointee fraudulently occupied the status of “railway servant”, he could not have benefited from the rules made for them. It said the provisions under the ‘warning’ column of the attestation form should have been used in this case.
“These provisions already provide that furnishing of false information or suppression of any factual information in the attestation form would lead to a disqualification and is likely to render the candidate unfit for employment under the government,” the board said.
Furnishing false information or suppressing facts can lead to termination, regardless of the time of discovery during the person’s employment, it noted.
“Thus, what was required was the adoption of the process of termination/cancellation of the very appointment of the person concerned and not the invocation of provisions of service rules which, by default, conferred on the person concerned erroneously the status of a railway servant,” the board stated.
The case information was circulated to all railway zones “for their guidance and awareness,” the communication noted. (PTI)