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Employer Can Justify Dismissal Of An Employee Without An Enquiry By Way Of Leading Evidence: Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court in recent judgment observed that dismissal of an employee by his/her employer cannot be interfered with merely on the ground of absence of disciplinary proceedings, if the latter could justify the action by leading evidence before the Labour Court.

In the case of State of Uttarakhand & Ors. v. Smt. Sureshwati, the Respondent was initially engaged as an Assistant Teacher in Jai Bharat Junior High School after which she worked as a clerk. During this period, the School was an unaided Private Institution. Many years later the School started receiving grants-in-aid from the State and came to be governed by the Uttaranchal School Education Act, 2006. The respondent was dismissed by the School on the ground of continued absence from service. The respondent filed a complaint before the Labour Commissioner who passed an ex-parte award in favour of the employee. However, the said award was challenged before the High Court of Uttarakhand and the High Court allowed the Writ Petition, and remanded the case to the Labour Court to decide the matter.

The Labour Court held that the Claimant/Respondent was not entitled to any relief as sufficient evidence was produced by the Management to prove the continued absence of Respondent from the service since 01-07-1997. It was further held that the Respondent had not approached the Court with clean hands. The writ petition was again filed by the respondent before the High Court. The court allowed the petition only on the grounds that the employer had admitted in the cross-examination that no enquiry was conducted, or disciplinary proceedings initiated regarding the abandonment of service by the employee. Thus, the High Court reversed the Judgment passed by the Labour Court, and directed the reinstatement of the Respondent. Thereafter, the Appellants filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court impugning the Judgment passed by the High Court.

The bench of comprising of Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Indu Malhotra observed, “This Court has in a catena of decisions held that where an employer has failed to make an enquiry before dismissal or discharge of a workman, it is open for him to justify the action before the Labour Court by leading evidence before it. The entire matter would be open before the tribunal, which would have the jurisdiction to satisfy itself on the evidence adduced by the parties whether the dismissal or discharge was justified.”

Further the Court added, “The School has led sufficient evidence before the Labour Court to prove that the Respondent had abandoned her service from 01.07.1997 when she got married, and moved to another District, which was not denied by her in her evidence. The record of the School reveals that she was not in employment of the School since July 1997.”

The Apex Court set aside the Judgment of High Court dated and restored the award passed by the Labour Court dated 22-08-2016.

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