MADURAI: A division bench of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently refused to set aside the disciplinary action against a police personnel for not preventing a murder. The petitioner, M Velladurai, a head constable at the armed reserve in Thoothukudi district, was appealing against the order by a single bench, which observed that Velladurai had admitted guilt before the inquiry officer and therefore there was no reason to interfere with quantum of punishment.
The bench comprising justices SM Subramaniam and V Laskshminarayanan concurred with the single judge order and said the punishment imposed cannot be termed as disproportionate or otherwise, as the procedures contemplated under the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1955, were scrupulously followed and he participated in the inquiry and admitted guilt before the inquiry officer.
The court said the district police took departmental action against Velladurai under Rule 3(b) of Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1955, on charges that he failed to prevent a heinous crime (murder). As he is uniformed services personnel, the disciplinary authority took serious note of this and conducted an inquiry, during which he admitted to the charges. Based on the report, the disciplinary authority imposed the penalty of reduction in rank by one stage for three years with cumulative effect, but later reduced it to reduction in rank by one stage for two years without cumulative effect.