In Brief
A junior engineer in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation was acquitted in a criminal case for corruption (accepting bribes), but dismissed from service in a separate departmental inquiry. The High Court set aside the dismissal, holding the acquittal conclusive. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that departmental inquiries are independent of criminal trials with different standards of proof. Since hostile witnesses in the criminal trial rendered no evidence, but the same complainant testified against the officer in the departmental inquiry with physical evidence (sodium carbonate test), the dismissal order was justified and required no interference.
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