Rajasthan High Court in Harbajan Singh vs. Superintendent of Police S. B. Civil WP No. 7146/2003, on August 14, 2025, directed that an employee be paid salary for the period spent in judicial custody on criminal charges unconnected to his official duties, emphasising that he was subsequently acquitted and cleared in the departmental proceedings. In this regard Court observed that the detention preventing performance of duty was not voluntary and that an acquitted employee could not be saddled with financial prejudice. Referring to established judicial precedents, the Court reiterated that the principle of “no work, no pay” cannot be rigidly applied in such cases. The Court further observed that when an employee is unable to perform duties due to detention and is later acquitted, equity demands that he should not be penalised for a period during which he could not possibly have worked. Accordingly, the Court directed the release of the employee’s salary for the custody period, affirming that denial of wages under such circumstances is unjust and unreasonable.
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