An assistant manager in the General Post Office (GPO) canteen, who got the stick for serving rotten carrots, has been cleared of the charge by the high court seven years later.

The division bench of Justice K.J. Sengupta and Justice Tapas Giri on Wednesday ordered the Posts and Telegraph department to set aside the suspension order on Debasish Roy, reinstate him in service and pay him the money deducted from his salary.

The inquiry that found the 49-year-old guilty of serving rotten carrots was not in accordance with the law, ruled the judges.

“Whether a vegetable that grows below the ground is rotten or not can be determined only after it is cut. Thus, only those who had cut the carrots could verify that they were rotten. But the two cooks in the canteen, who cut vegetables and prepared food, were not called to depose before an inquiry committee,” the bench observed.

The assistant manager was responsible for quality control over the food served to GPO employees in the canteen. It was his job to ensure that the vegetables used were fresh. Hence, when some employees alleged that rotten carrots had been served to them in the canteen, the GPO management started an inquiry against Roy.

All the employees of the canteen were called to depose before the committee, excluding the two cooks. The panel found Roy guilty of misappropriating canteen funds by serving rotten carrots. He was suspended and Rs 4,300 was being deducted from his salary every month during the seven years of his suspension.

Roy approached the appellate authority of the department for justice. “It, too, found him guilty of serving rotten carrots to the employees but exempted him from the charge of misappropriating canteen funds,” said lawyer Pradip Roy, who appeared for Roy in the high court.

The frail man from south Calcutta could not stomach the verdict. He moved the high court against the order and won the right to go back to work at the canteen. “Justice has finally been done,” he said.