The Rajasthan High Court has set aside a censure penalty imposed on a school teacher over the below-standard Chemistry results of the 12th Board Exam at his school.

Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand ruled that the teacher could not be penalized under Rule 17 of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Classification, Control, and Appeal) Rules, 1958, as there was no allegation linking the decline in results to any act or omission on his part.

The petitioner contended that multiple factors contributed to the poor results, none of which were due to his negligence or inaction. Consequently, the disciplinary action taken against him was legally unsustainable.

Conversely, the State argued that the subpar results stemmed from the teacher's slackness and carelessness.

After considering the arguments, the Court referred to a coordinate bench's decision in Dharamveer v. State of Rajasthan & Ors., which dealt with a similar issue.

“It is well settled that to constitute misconduct in a service, there must be commission or omission of some act on the part of the employee. Beside this, charge should be specific and must be without any ambiguity. The allegation of misconduct must be based on specific acts, deeds or omission of the employee. In absence of it, the charge shall be vague. The charge levelled against the petitioner is not at all specific, as such the same is vague.”

In this background, the court set aside the penalty, by quashing the order.

Case Title: Rajesh Kumar v State of Rajasthan & Ors.