Acquittal Based On Benefit Of Doubt

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The Supreme Court has held that a public employer can reject a candidate as unsuitable if he had, in the past, been acquitted of a serious crime merely on the benefit of doubt.

Background

• A candidate was not appointed after qualifying the recruitment test of constable in Rajasthan Police Service based on its criminal record.
• It was found that, though he was acquitted, the charges against him were not of a trivial nature but were serious offences and the candidate was not acquitted by the Court honourably.

Ruling in this regard

• The mere fact of an acquittal would not suffice but rather it would depend on whether it is a clean acquittal based on the total absence of evidence or in the criminal jurisprudence requiring the case to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, that parameter having not been met, the benefit of the doubt has been granted to the accused.
• An acquittal on the benefit of the doubt is quite different from an honourable acquittal. A person should be honourably acquitted of a heinous crime to be considered eligible for public employment.
• Besides, acquittal in a criminal case does not automatically entitle a candidate for appointment to the post.

Avtar Singh vs. Union of India

• In this, the SC summarized the principles to be followed by Employers while dealing with issues related to the suppression of information or submitting false information in the verification form by employees/candidates as to the question of having been criminally prosecuted, arrested or as to pendency of a criminal case.

Acquittal and Honorable Acquittal

• The term “Honorable acquittal” was coined by Indian jurisprudence. There exists a thin line between “Acquittal” and “Honorable acquittal”.
• The trial court after giving due consideration to the evidence placed on record and examining the witness may do any of the following:
  • Convict the person.
  • Acquit the person unconditionally. In other words, it is a simpliciter acquittal.
  • Acquitting the person by extending the “benefit of doubt” or due to the failure on the prosecution’s side to prove the guilt “beyond reasonable doubt”.
• An accused who is acquitted after full consideration of the prosecution evidence and prosecution has miserably failed to prove the charges levelled against the accused, it can possibly be said that the accused was honourably acquitted.

Source: Livelaw/TH