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Judgment Intelligence
Petition AllowedDevilal Bheel v. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
2026:RJ-JD:23852
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10803/2026
- Court
- Rajasthan High Court
- Date of Decision
- 18 May 2026
- Bench
- Justice Arun Monga
- Relevant Acts & Sections
- Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 — Sections 4, 12; Department of Personnel, Government of Rajasthan, Circular dated 04.12.2019 — clause (iii); Indian Penal Code, 1860 — Sections 380, 454
Final Outcome
Petition disposed of. The committee's decision of 10.04.2026 was set aside, and the competent authority must reconsider the petitioner's claim afresh without regard to his release on probation; if otherwise eligible and meritorious, he must get the benefit (paras 10-11).
Key holdings
- Section 12 of the Probation of Offenders Act removes any disqualification attaching to a conviction, notwithstanding any other law (para 7).
- Clause (iii) of the 2019 circular treats candidates released on probation as eligible for appointment (para 6).
- A committee cannot reject a compassionate-appointment claim solely because of a conviction followed by probation (para 8).
- The Act aims at rehabilitation, not permanent stigma, of first or minor offenders (para 9).
- The candidate’s claim must be reconsidered without regard to the conviction (para 10).
Brief Facts
The petitioner's father, a Class-IV employee of the Water Resources Department since 1985, died in service on 12.08.2024, and the petitioner and his mother applied for compassionate appointment for him (para 2). He disclosed a 2015 case under Sections 454 and 380 IPC, in which he was convicted; on revision in March 2025 this Court released him on probation under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act (para 2). His case was recommended on 06.10.2025 and a police verification report was called for, but on 10.04.2026 a departmental committee, relying on the circular of 04.12.2019, rejected him solely because of the criminal case, without giving him the police report (para 2).
Court's Findings
The Court dispensed with notice because the dispute turned on the State's own circular (para 5). Clause (iii) of the circular of 04.12.2019 expressly treats candidates released on probation under Section 12 as eligible, saying the conviction carries no disqualification or adverse effect on government service (para 6). Section 12 provides that, notwithstanding any other law, a person dealt with under Section 3 or 4 suffers no disqualification attaching to the conviction; the disqualification is extinguished by force of law, not merely waived (para 7). The circular only gives administrative effect to that statutory mandate, so the committee acted in defiance of both by rejecting the petitioner for his conviction (para 8). The petitioner was otherwise found meritorious, and excluding a person on probation from public employment would defeat the Act's purpose of rehabilitating first or minor offenders rather than stigmatising them permanently (para 9). Any administrative action that nullifies this legislative purpose is arbitrary (para 9).
Legal Principle
A person released on probation under Section 3 or 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act suffers no disqualification attaching to the conviction, notwithstanding any other law. The conviction cannot be used to deny compassionate appointment, and the Rajasthan circular of 04.12.2019 itself treats such candidates as eligible (paras 6-8).
