Delhi HC reinstates RPF constable fired over FB comment row

The bench of C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla said officials ignored evidence and granted full back wages and continuity of service.

The Delhi High Court has quashed the dismissal of Railway Protection Force constable Robin Gautam, ruling that his 2019 termination for allegedly commenting “Badhiya Kiya Bhai!” on a Facebook post about the killing of a senior officer by another constable was taken without any application of mind and was unsustainable in law.

The court noted the officer had no verified Facebook account and ruled he must receive pay fixation and service continuity as though never removed. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla, in a verdict dated November 26 and released on Saturday, termed the disciplinary action a “complete miscarriage of justice” and directed Gautam’s reinstatement.

The court observed that at every stage, from the Disciplinary Authority onwards, officials failed to apply basic care while determining Gautam’s future. “This is a clear case where there is a complete non-application of mind at every stage, from the stage of the Disciplinary Authority onwards. We are constrained to observe that when officers are dealing with the careers of other officers, they are expected to display some modicum of application of mind,” the bench said.

Gautam was dismissed in February 2019 on the ground that his alleged comment amounted to discreditable conduct, harmed the reputation of the force and suggested he sympathised with a constable who had committed a cold-blooded murder of his superior. However, the bench noted that the commanding officer, acting as the disciplinary authority, had himself recorded that there was no conclusive evidence that the Facebook account belonged to Gautam, yet proceeded to rely on a new allegation that he had suppressed facts, without specifying what those facts were.

Challenging the dismissal, Gautam argued he did not have a Facebook account and that his photograph, available publicly, could have been misused by someone else. The court held that once the Disciplinary Authority found no conclusive proof linking him to the comment, “the only sequitur can be that the petitioner was entitled to be exonerated of the charges against him in the chargesheet.”

The court said that he would be reinstated from the date he was dismissed and also directed for paying him the wages as if he was never removed from service. “The petitioner shall be entitled to be reinstated in service from the date on which he was removed from service. He shall also be entitled to continuity in service as well as to pay fixation as though he had never been removed from service in the first place,” the court said in the order.