Police officials are not expected to engage in moral policing, the Supreme Court has said while upholding the dismissal of a Central Industrial Security Force constable, Live Law reported on Tuesday.

The court set aside a Gujarat High Court verdict from December 16, 2014, that had directed the reinstatement of the constable, Santosh Kumar Pandey, with 50% back wages. The Central Industrial Security Force had filed an appeal against the High Court judgement in the Supreme Court.

According to the Central Industrial Security Force’s chargesheet against Pandey, on the intervening night of October 26, 2001, and October 27, 2001, he was posted at an Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited township at Vadodara, according to PTI.

At about 1 am, he reportedly saw his colleague travelling on a motorbike with his fiancée and intercepted them. The chargesheet stated that he asked his colleague if he could “spend some time” with his fiancée and then allegedly demanded something in return for allowing the couple to pass. The colleague then had to give his watch to Pandey.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and JK Maheshwari said that the High Court did not properly apply the law of judicial review in the case. It said that the woman could not be said to have exonerated the constable merely because she said that she could not hear what he had said.

The court said that the facts of the case were startling and distressing. “Respondent No. 1 – Santosh Kumar Pandey is not a police officer, and even police officers are not required to do moral policing, ask for physical favours or material goods,” the bench said.

The Supreme Court set aside the High Court order and restored the punishment of dismissal awarded to Pandey.