NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said a public servant who is arrested and remains in judicial custody for more than 48 hours is treated as automatically suspended.
The court made the observation while restoring bail to Vishwajeet Singh, an administrator at a government hospital in Bihar who is accused of demanding a bribe of Rs 4,000 to clear a contractual worker’s pending wages of Rs 36,421.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manmohan set aside a Patna High Court order that had cancelled Singh’s bail nearly a year after it was granted by a sessions court.
The bench said the amount of bribe allegedly demanded was not relevant while deciding a bail plea. It added that the high court could have commented on the sessions court’s reference to the amount as being small without cancelling the bail.
While restoring the bail, the Supreme Court flagged on Nov 6 what it called a “disturbing feature” concerning Singh’s service status and subsequent posting.
“It appears that upon arrest, the appellant accused was in judicial custody for almost a period of 15 days. Once a public servant is arrested and remains in judicial custody for more than 48 hours, there is a deemed suspension. Being a public servant, he could be said to have been placed under deemed suspension. No specific order is required to be passed in this regard,” Justice Pardiwala said in the order.
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