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Under 11 A of Industrial Disputes Act if any disciplinary enquiry held on employee is found to be false then the wages should be awarded fully- High Court of Delhi.

In cases where the employee is not guilty of any charges placed on him then under 11A of the Industrial dispute act such case shall be decided based on natural Justice and the Employee shall be awarded with full wages, it was decided in the case of B. RAWAT VS DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY (W.P. (C) 2611/2019) by the single bench of HON’BLE JUSTICE JYOTI SINGH.

In this case Petitioner joined as Assistant Registrar with the Respondent/Delhi Technological University on 23.08.2010. On 19.05.2016, Petitioner Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed Date: 20.12.2021 15:24:09 tendered his resignation, which was accepted by Professor Singh on 22.05.2016 and a formal order was issued on 25.05.2016. Professor Singh had assumed additional charge as a Vice-Chancellor of Respondent University on 24.09.2015 .On request of the Petitioner for withdrawal of resignation was rejected by the Respondent and aggrieved by the said action, Petitioner approached this Court by filing the present writ petition.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that here back wages were awarded, related to termination/ retrenchment which were held to be illegal and invalid for non-compliance with statutory requirements or related to cases where the Court found that the termination was motivated or amounted to victimisation. The decisions relating to back wages payable on illegal retrenchment or termination may have no application to the case like the present one, where the termination (dismissal or removal or compulsory retirement) is by way of punishment for misconduct in a departmental enquiry, and the court confirms the finding regarding misconduct, but only interferes with the punishment being of the view that it is excessive, and awards a lesser punishment, resulting in the reinstatement of employee.

The counsel for the respondent submitted that the cases in which the Labour Court/Industrial Tribunal exercises power under Section 11-A  of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and finds that even though the enquiry held against the employee/workman is consistent with the rules of natural justice and/or certified standing orders, if any, but holds that the punishment was disproportionate to the misconduct found proved, then it will have the discretion not to award full back wages

After recording the facts and arguments of both the parties the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka held that “the court should bear in mind that in most of these cases, the employer is in an advantageous position vis-à-vis the employee or workman. Therefore, in such cases it would be prudent to adopt the course suggested in The observation made in that on reinstatement the employee/workman cannot claim Signature continuity of service as of right is contrary to the ratio of the judgments referred to hereinabove and cannot be treated as good law. This part of the judgment is also against the very concept of reinstatement of an employee/workman.” Accordingly, writ petition is allowed”

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Judgement reviewed by Pratikshya Pattnaik