Sleeping while on guard duty highest degree of indiscipline for CISF personnel: Bombay High Court

A member of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) sleeping while on duty to guard the main gate of a security establishment amounts to highest degree of indiscipline, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court held on Saturday [Prahlad Bhaurao Thale vs Union of India]. .A division bench of Justices Mangesh Patil and Sandeep Marne said that it is of utmost importance that members of armed forces maintain discipline."CISF is an armed force of the Union and being the member of the armed force, maintenance of discipline amongst its members is paramount. A member of force in possession of a weapon sleeping during the course of duty who is deputed to guard the Main Gate, which is under construction, is the highest degree of indiscipline," the Court said..The Court was hearing a plea filed by a head constable of the CISF challenging the order of the disciplinary committee, which had imposed a punishment of compulsory retirement on him after he was found sleeping while on guarding duty. On being confronted, the petitioner also misbehaved with the officer, who caught him sleeping while on duty. Besides the charge of sleeping in duty there were two other charges against him - for misbehaving with superior officers, who had questioned him about the quantity of ration issued in the CISF Mess.Disciplinary inquiry was conducted in pursuance of a memorandum of charge-sheet dated May 3, 2013 and the petitioner participated in the same. The inquiry officer submitted his report holding all three charges to be proved.Punishment was imposed on him in November 26, 2013, which was upheld by the appellate authority as well as the revision authority by orders passed in February 2014 and August 2014, respectively..He then moved the High Court challenging the same. The High Court in its order noted that far from expressing any remorse for his misconduct, the petitioner indulged in the act of subordination misbehaviour with the officer, who found him sleeping on duty. "To make things worse, he indulged in misbehaving with the officers and challenged their authority on two subsequent occasions. We, therefore, do not find that any discriminatory treatment is meted out to him while subjecting him to disciplinary proceedings or punishing him in respect of charge of sleeping on duty," the bench said..The Court refused to accept the contention of the petitioner that he has rendered 30 years service in the force and was compelled to retire just when he had six more years to serve."This submission, according to us, far from assisting the petitioner, actually militates against him. It is not that he is compulsorily retired at the beginning or middle of his career. He has put in substantial period of service and would earn substantial pension. The penalty imposed on him does not shock our conscience. In addition to the grave misconduct of sleeping on duty with weapon, he consistently misbehaved with superior officers on three different occasions," the bench noted.Such conduct as a member of the disciplined force is completely unacceptable, the Court underline. "Being a member of disciplined force, it is completely unacceptable that the petitioner repeatedly misbehaved with different officers on different occasions. One can easily draw an inference that he was showing traits of being an incalcitrant employee. We find his misconduct proved and that there isn't any fault with the authorities maintaining discipline amongst the force by punishing a member found to be repeatedly indulging in misbehaviour with superior officers," the Court stated. With these observations, the bench dismissed his plea and upheld the penalty imposed by the authorities..Advocates Yashodeep Deshmukh and Yogesh Deshmukh appeared for the petitioner. Additional Government Pleader Bhushan Kulkarni represented the CISF and other authorities. .[Read Judgment]