Abuses no ground for dismissal: HC

New Delhi: Cuss words are commonly used by jawans while communicating with each other and cannot be held as a ground for dismissal from service, Delhi high court said on Saturday while ordering the reinstatement of a CISF trooper dismissed for using an expletive with a senior.
“The experience of life resolves more than the logic of the law. Our experience guides us that the jawans do speak street language while communicating with each other and liberally spice queries with abuses. Queries with abuses are in the form of words ‘madarc**d’, ‘behanc**d’. Quizzing a jawan as to where was he going, it is not uncommon to hear him say, ‘behanc**d kahan ja raha hai’, or when a jawan returns, the other saying ‘behanc**d aa gaya’,” a division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Suresh Kait noted while granting relief to petitioner Krishna Pal Singh, a constable dismissed from the CISF Unit IOC, Panipat.
Singh’s case was filed following an incident on Dec 16, 2002. He was involved in a spat with his senior sub-inspector, R L Pandit, who was the shift in-charge of the CISF Unit IOC, Panipat. Singh alleged that Pandit triggered the spat and slapped him; the latter maintained it was Singh who abused and assaulted him.
A preliminary inquiry was conducted and Singh was suspended with immediate effect from December 17, 2002. He told the inquiry panel that on December 16, 2002, he was unwell when his duty was over late in the evening. When his reliever failed to show up, he contacted Pandit over the telephone and wanted to know why the reliever had not arrived.
Unable to get a satisfactory explanation, Singh left his post and ran into Pandit who roundly abused him, as per Singh’s version.