In a significant ruling, a Gurdaspur court has dismissed the Punjab government's appeal against a lower court's decision that awarded pensionary benefits to Pankaj Kumar, a former head constable dismissed in 2011 following an FIR. Kumar was acquitted of all charges in 2019, yet the police department refused to reinstate him. The court found the dismissal order to be 'cryptic' and legally unsustainable, emphasizing that the department failed to provide justifiable reasons for not conducting a departmental inquiry. The ruling pointed out that other police officers implicated in the same FIR had been reinstated, which constituted discrimination against Kumar and violated Article 14 of the Constitution. The additional district judge upheld the trial court's decision, confirming Kumar's entitlement to pension benefits and ordering the state to pay him arrears with 6% annual interest from the dismissal date until his retirement on October 6, 2023. The court also instructed the authorities to expedite the processing of his pension benefits.