In Brief
Raj Narain, a Railway Mail Service employee, was suspended in 1979 on allegations of forged money orders and later convicted and dismissed. After criminal appeal, he was acquitted in 2001. He sought reinstatement and back wages. The Supreme Court held that while he is ordinarily not entitled to back wages for the criminal trial period, he is entitled to full wages from 1979 to 1987 because disciplinary proceedings were dropped in 1983 and no fresh suspension was issued during the trial. The Court also awarded back wages from acquittal (31.08.2001) to reinstatement (20.01.2003), after adjusting subsistence allowance paid.
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