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Gajanan Marotrao Nimje & Ors. v. The Reserve Bank of India & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 957Decided 11 Oct 2018
Civil Appeal No. 10396 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

The appellants, long-serving RBI employees (many close to or past retirement) who had originally been appointed against posts reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates, were ordered terminated and made to return all service benefits by a 2018 Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) judgment, after it was found they did not actually belong to the Scheduled Tribe category. This followed an earlier, separate 2012 judgment of the same High Court in a related writ petition involving similarly placed employees, which had instead protected such employees' appointments by shifting them into the general category rather than terminating them, a position RBI had implemented through a 2013 circular. The 2018 High Court bench, however, did not account for this 2012 judgment or the RBI circular when it ordered outright termination and recovery of benefits.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's 2018 order terminating the appellants was unjustified in light of the specific history of the litigation, since there was no finding that the appellants had committed any fraud in obtaining their caste certificates or employment, and in any event they would likely have qualified for some other backward-class reservation at the time of recruitment. Because the 2012 judgment protecting similarly situated employees had already been upheld by the Supreme Court (special leave and review petitions against it were dismissed) and operated effectively as a judgment binding on everyone in that class (not just the original parties), the Court held the appellants were entitled to the same protection. It modified the High Court's judgment: the appellants would be placed below the last general-category candidate as of 28 November 2000 and continue in service till retirement, with reserved-category benefits earned after that date to be surrendered/recovered, but with no recovery at all from those already retired, while directing the High Court to dispose of related contempt proceedings against RBI officers.

Lesson Learnt

Employees cannot simply be terminated years into their careers over a caste-certificate dispute without the court considering the full history and any earlier binding judgment that already resolved how similarly placed employees should be treated; a fair middle path, reclassification and benefit adjustment rather than outright dismissal, and no clawback from those already retired, can be the proportionate remedy.

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

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