CAT warns railways over delay in reinstatement case

Bhopal/Jabalpur: The Jabalpur bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has pulled up the Railway Board , West Central Railway and ZRTI Bhusawal for ignoring its order to decide on the reinstatement of an officer acquitted in a dowry case. It gave them one "last chance" to comply.

Rajkumar Dubey , an inspector of works later appointed vice-principal of ZRTI Bhusawal, was dismissed from the service after a trial court convicted him in 2020 on a complaint by his wife.

Dubey from Jabalpur, in his petition, the dismissal order, however, stated that he would be reinstated if his appeal was allowed in the higher court. The high court allowed his appeal against the trial court order on June 29, 2024. He then filed a petition in CAT seeking reinstatement in service.

The tribunal disposed of the petition on Oct 1, 2024, asking the railways to decide on Dubey's reinstatement within 90 days. When there was no action on the order, a contempt petition was filed.

The bench of justices AK Arya and Malika Arya gave a last chance to respondents in the case to comply with the previous order of the tribunal after they didn't respond to its notices seeking response to the contempt petition.