KOCHI: The Armed Forces Tribunal, Regional Bench, Kochi, has directed the Central Government to reinstate an Army officer who was dismissed from service after General Court Martial (GCM) proceedings.
The Bench issued the order on a petition filed by Major R Metri of Karnataka, seeking to quash the GCM proceedings. The petitioner was a medical officer in the Army medical corps.
The charge against him was that being a public servant, he obtained a gratification other than legal remuneration as a reward for carrying out an official act, contrary to Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
The alleged incident happened in January 2009 at Dharwad while he was performing the duties of recruiting medical officer.
According to him, conviction and sentence were unsustainable as there was no evidence against him. The evidence shows complicity of some senior officers in adopting foul means in the recruitment process and the appellant was made a scapegoat after coercing him to give a confession statement, the petition said.
There is no convincing evidence to prove the offence under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Bench observed.
However, it held the petitioner was found guilty of the offence under Section 63 of the Army Act and could be convicted thereunder. It held the petitioner be reinstated in service, with no pay and allowance for the period for which he remained out of service, but without any service break.