An employee may face disciplinary proceedings during service, but what happens if he dies before the department imposes a final penalty?
Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court has quashed disciplinary proceedings against a government teacher who died while the enquiry was pending, holding that proceedings cannot continue when no final penalty was imposed during his lifetime.
Justice Mukesh Rajpurohit also set aside the charge-sheet issued against late Babu Mohammed Panwar, a PTI Grade-III teacher.
Panwar was suspended in July 2015 after he remained in judicial custody for more than 48 hours in connection with an FIR registered under Sections 498-A, 304-B and 406 of the IPC.
After being released on bail, he repeatedly sought revocation of his suspension and approached the High Court. Although the Court directed the authorities to consider his representation, the department instead issued a memorandum and charge-sheet against him on May 24, 2022 under Rule 16 of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1958.
The departmental allegations substantially arose from the same incident that was also the subject of the criminal case.
While the writ petition was pending, Panwar died on April 27, 2026. His legal representatives were then brought on record. The family argued that since no final order imposing a disciplinary penalty had been passed during Panwar’s lifetime, the proceedings could not survive his death.
The State, however, maintained that the charge-sheet had been validly issued and that departmental proceedings were independent of the criminal prosecution.
The High Court accepted the State’s position that departmental proceedings and criminal prosecution operate in different fields. But it held that this distinction did not answer the central issue of whether disciplinary proceedings could continue against an employee who had died before any penalty was imposed.
The Court held that disciplinary proceedings are meant to determine whether an employee committed misconduct and whether a penalty should be imposed. Since such proceedings are directly linked to the employee, they cannot continue after his death as an exercise to determine his guilt.
The Court further observed that once an employee dies, no disciplinary penalty can be imposed on him; therefore, in the absence of any final penalty during his lifetime, continuation of the enquiry cannot be sustained.
It accordingly quashed the May 24, 2022 charge-sheet and all consequential disciplinary proceedings.