Madras High Court quashed the termination of a male police constable while observing that man and woman found inside a locked house cannot be presumed to be in an immoral relationship.
“This kind of presumption prevailing in the society cannot be the basis for initiating disciplinary action and inflicting punishment,” noted Justice R Suresh Kumar.
Madras High Court made the observations while hearing an appeal of an armed reserve police constable who was terminated from the service on the ground of moral turpitude after he was found with a female constable in a locked house.
Constable K Saravana Babu was found inside a locked house with a neighbouring woman in the year 1998. On October 10, 1998, a woman constable entered the residential quarter of K Saravana Babu. The house was found locked when neighbors knocked at his door.
As per Saravana Rao, the woman constable had come to his home to ask for the keys of her house as she resided close by. He also submitted that while they were talking, someone just locked the door and then pretended to knock at the door.
“There was absolutely no eyewitness or any other concrete evidence to prove that the two constables were found in a compromise position,” the court said.
