State of Delhi Vs. Vijay Pal

- labour & services promotion: [altamas kabir & markandey katju, jj] regional rural banks act (21 of 1976), section 29, circular dated 10-6-1997- circular providing concession to scheduled castes/scheduled tribe officers falling within number of vacancies from list drawn up on basis of seniority, to be promoted to officers scale ii grade automatically, provided they were not unfit for promotion-17 vacancies falling vacant- held, no reservation had been provided by appellant-bank for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes candidates in the matter of promotion by selection from scale i to scale ii and from scale ii to scale iii posts in regional rural bank, and candidates were generally subjected to interview /written tests. however, in order to provide some benefit to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes candidates a concession was included in the circular dated 10-6-1997 which was in keeping with certain conditions which had been provided by the circular dated 9-11-1994 issued by nabard and also certain other government circulars. in terms of the said concession, officers belonging to sc/st falling within number of vacancies from list drawn up on basis of seniority, to be promoted to officers scale ii grade automatically, provided they were not unfit for promotion. the concession relating to reservation does not mean that any of the vacant posts were required to be kept reserved for such scheduled caste or scheduled tribe candidate. it is only when such a candidate came within the number of vacancies that such a concession would be applicable to him/her for appointment without going through the selection process. in the instant case, the respondent was at serial no.39 in list drawn on basis of seniority and did not, therefore, come within the number of available vacancies i.e. 17 and, consequently, he had to compete with all the other candidates for being selected for one of the vacancies. - as regards pw kamla kurnari, the high court has found it highly..........kamla kurnari, the high court has found it highly unsafe to convict the appellant on the uncorroborated testimony of this child witness. the high court has pointed out infirmities in her evidence and given cogent reasons why they think it unsafe to act upon her uncorroborated evidence. we do not think it necessary to reiterate all those reasons. it will suffice to reproduce one of them in the words of the learned judges of the high court, as this reason more than any other, shows that by the morning of june 9, 1970, even after kamla's return home, the complainant mother of the ill fated deceased, was not sure as to whether the deceased was accidently burnt or had been set fire by her husband, the accused the learned judges observe:ghanshyam, eldest son-in-law of bhagwati admitted to have told vijay pal on the morning of june 9, 1970 that this mother-in-law was agreeable to give him the hand of her younger daughter if it was found that kaushalya had caught fire accidentally without any culpability on his part. it be believed that such a thing could cannot have been said by ghanshyam unless bhagwati had told him something to that effect. it is almost impossible to believe that if kamla had mentioned to her mother that she had herself seen vijay pal sprinkling kerosene oil on the clothes of kaushalaya and then setting fire to the clothes. bhagwati could still think of offering the hand of her younger daughter to the murderer of kaushalya. it, therefore, appears that probably bhagwati was not sure about the guilt of vijay pal even till the morning of june 9, 1970, though she may have some suspicion. may be the different versions in the two applications which were got typed by her were on account of the uncertainty in her mind.2. we entirely agree with this reasoning which, more than any other argument, undermines the truth of the prosecution story. it not only throws a serious doubt on kamla's claim to being an eye-witness of the occurrence, but also destroys the.....