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Director, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) v. Devendra Joshi & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 245Decided 19 Mar 2018
Civil Appeal No. 2926 of 2018
Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

Respondent No.1 was appointed as a probationary Engineer at ARIES in 2008. During his probation, his employer flagged unsatisfactory performance and separately held a preliminary inquiry into alleged misconduct (improperly copying files from a pen-drive), but then chose not to pursue a full disciplinary inquiry and instead terminated him at the end of his probation through a plain, non-stigmatic order. Respondent No.1 challenged the termination, claiming it was really punishment for his having objected to a colleague's promotion, and the High Court agreed, setting aside the termination and ordering the employer to accommodate him. The employer (ARIES) appealed to the Supreme Court; Respondent No.1 also separately appealed the High Court's refusal to confirm him in the post.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court wrongly decided an appointment issue that Respondent No.1 had never actually challenged in his writ petition, and wrongly ignored documented warnings about his unsatisfactory work that predated his objection to the colleague's appointment. Relying on its earlier ruling in Radhey Shyam Gupta v. U.P. State Agro Industries Corpn., the Court reiterated that a probationer's termination is "punitive" (and requires a hearing) only when misconduct findings from a completed inquiry form the actual foundation of the order; where, as here, a preliminary inquiry was merely used to decide whether to retain the employee and the employer chose not to press the misconduct charge, the termination remains a non-punitive "termination simpliciter" that casts no stigma. On that basis, it set aside the High Court's judgment and allowed ARIES's appeal, and for the same reasons dismissed Respondent No.1's connected appeal seeking confirmation in the post.

Lesson Learnt

An employer can lawfully end a probationer's service with a plain, non-stigmatic termination order even after an internal inquiry flagged possible misconduct, so long as that inquiry's findings were not formally relied upon as the stated basis for the termination: the touchstone is whether misconduct is the order's actual "foundation," not merely its background "motive."

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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