A man, who attacked his superiors and blackened face of one of them for casting an evil eye on his wife working in the same office, had to suffer 32 years with compulsory retirement.
The Supreme Court finally on April 4 restored some of his prestige and loss by converting his punishment from compulsory retirement to voluntary retirement.
On an appeal filed by Laxman Singh, a bench of Justices Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Navin Sinha took note of a letter produced in record which indicated the use of unparliamentary language by the petitioner's senior in the postal department against his wife.
"On the fateful day, the superior spoke too much about the wife of the person and expressed his ill desire about her, which was extreme in terms of normal human behaviour," Singh's counsel Dushyant Parashar submitted.
On April 10, 1986, he attacked the superior after lifting an office chair. On May 27, 1986, he blackened face of another superior as he tried to protect the colleague.
He was charged with high degree of indiscipline and insubordination, unbecoming of a government servant.
Taking a sympathetic view of the matter, the bench said, "Law and life run together. We have examined the matter from a common man's perspective as one may forget abuse to one's wife either in one hour or in one year, that depends on an individual."
