Telangana HC: Removal of an insurance officer later honourably acquitted is excessive; reduced to compulsory retirement
The question: Is the penalty of removal from service proportionate where the officer was honourably acquitted in a criminal trial on substantially the same charges?
An officer of National Insurance Company Limited was dismissed in 2002 after a departmental inquiry into medical-claim settlements, and the appellate authority upheld the penalty in 2016. He was later tried on substantially the same allegations in a corruption case and honourably acquitted. The High Court held that removal from service, after about 24 years of service, was unduly harsh and disproportionate.