The Supreme Court on April 09, 2022 in the matter of Union of India vs Dillip Kumar Mallick reiterated that non-disclosure of material information itself could be a ground for cancellation of employment or termination of services.

In the instant case, the bench observed that Dillip Kumar Mallick was appointed under the Central Reserve Police Force (‘CRPF’) Group Centre, Bhubaneswar in the year 2003 without disclosing the fact of pendency of criminal case against him, had continued to remain as a pending-trial accused person without the knowledge of the department, until the facts were noticed and he was subjected to departmental proceedings.

The Bench referring to the case of Avtar Singh v. Union of India and Others (2016) 8 SCC 471, made the following observations –

“It remains beyond the pale of doubt that the cases of non-disclosure of material information and of submitting false information have been treated as being of equal gravity by this Court and it is laid down in no uncertain terms that non-disclosure by itself may be a ground for an employer to cancel the candidature or to terminate services. Even in the summation above-quoted, this Court has emphasized that information given to the employer by a candidate as to criminal case including the factors of arrest or pendency of the case, whether before or after entering into service, must be true and there should be no suppression or false mention of the required information.”