New Delhi — Dismissal or removal from service is the harshest punishment and "no less than a death penalty for the government servant", the Supreme Court has said, as it reinstated R. Saravanan, a former Deputy Registrar of Periyar University in Tamil Nadu.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar, in its October 16 order, set aside the Madras High Court Division Bench's order and restored the single-judge decision that had quashed Saravanan's removal from service.

The court held that the university's inquiry findings were perverse and based on no evidence, asking what could be a worse injustice than to "hang him only on hearsay", according to PTI.

Saravanan was removed from service in July 2013 following allegations — levelled by the university — that he had influenced the grant of affiliation to a college managed by his wife and had acquired a house and a car without the university's permission. The inquiry produced no evidence to support the allegations, the court found.

The court also said a Letters Patent Bench cannot interfere with a writ court's just and reasonable decision merely because it holds a different view. The case is cited as 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 1068.

Sources: PTI, LiveLaw, Law Trend.