The Supreme Court has admonished a District Magistrate of Uttar Pradesh for denying character certificate to a woman finding fault with her husband’s character who had pending criminal cases against him.
The court rapped the DM of Basti district and asked him to consider the lady’s request afresh. The Bench of Justices TS Thakur, RF Nariman and PC Pant agreed with the petitioner Manyata Devi that the DM exceeded his authority to deny her character certificate by relying instead on her husband’s character. She required the certificate to enroll as a civil works contractor in the State Irrigation Department.
On her appeal, the Commissioner of Basti district intervened and knocked out the DM’s objection. The matter came for a second time before the DM who repeated the previous order, this time finding the petitioner to lack any past experience. Interestingly, the woman was a licensed proprietor of M/s Krishna Constructions and required the character certificate to renew the contractor license which expired in 2009.
Coming down harsh on the officer, the Bench said, “The District Magistrate appears to have been swayed by considerations wholly extraneous to the question whether the appellant had a good moral character…It is difficult to appreciate how criminal cases registered against the husband of the appellant could possibly deny her a certificate of good moral character.”
On the other reason DM cited regarding lack of experience, the Bench felt it was wholly irrelevant for issuing a good moral character. The Bench observed that the officer committed a mistake as the objection cited by him had to be gone into by the Irrigation Department and his job was limited to issuing character certificate alone.