In a relief to 47 Delhi Police constables, whose two years of services were forfeited each on allegations of corruption, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed the order against them and has directed to give them consequential benefits. “The impugned orders...cannot be sustained and are hereby quashed and set aside. The applicants (constables) shall be given all consequential benefits from the date when the punishment was imposed, within a period of two months,” said a CAT bench of its members George Paracken and Manjulika Gautam.

The order came on a bunch of petitions by 47 constables against whom the appellate authority of the Delhi Police had ordered for “forfeiture of two years” service permanently entailing proportionate reduction in their pay and the period of suspension is treated as period not spent on duty.”

A departmental inquiry was initiated against these 47 constables in March 2009 on allegations that they had indulged in corrupt activities by receiving money from bus operators.

According to the appeal filed by them before the CAT, a departmental inquiry against them was initiated on basis of a CD made allegedly in a sting operation by complainant Chetan Prakash.

In their appeal, they said the CD was fabricated and cannot be relied upon as Prakash is known for his nefarious activities and  is inimical to the police force because his father had been dismissed from the force.

They said that even the disciplinary authority, which had imposed punishment of forfeiture of four years of service on them in February last year, had mentioned that the sting was “indeed an illegitimate trap.”