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Ganapati Bhikarao Naik vs Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited

Not available · 2024 INSC 871Decided 13 Nov 2024
Not available
Justice Hrishikesh Roy · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

When land belonging to Bellanna Venkanna Gowda was acquired for the Kaiga Atomic Power Project, he secured a rehabilitation job for his son-in-law, the appellant, who had married his daughter Smt. Ganga in 1990 and was appointed as a Helper at the Nuclear Power Corporation. Years later, the marriage broke down and the appellant obtained a consent divorce in 2001. His father-in-law then complained that the appellant was never really married to Ganga, leading to a departmental inquiry, a finding of fraud, and the appellant's termination in 2002, which was upheld internally and by a Labour Court reference outcome later reversed on writ.

Decision Breakdown

A Labour Court had earlier held, based on evidence including the divorce proceedings themselves (where Ganga sought maintenance as his wife) and official records (attestation form and ration card listing her as his wife), that the marriage was genuine and the job was validly obtained; it ordered reinstatement with full back wages. The High Court's Single Judge set this aside, concluding the appellant had committed fraud. The Supreme Court restored the Labour Court's award, holding that the Single Judge had ignored the divorce proceedings and documentary evidence establishing a real marriage, and that a Writ Court should not disturb a Labour Court's factual findings without compelling reasons. However, the Court declined to award back wages for the period after the High Court's 2020 judgment, ordering reinstatement within four weeks with continuity of service benefits for the intervening period, but no back pay for that gap.

Lesson Learnt

A job or right obtained through a genuine family relationship at the time cannot later be undone as "fraud" simply because that relationship subsequently broke down. Courts must weigh the full evidentiary record, including formal admissions made in other proceedings like a divorce case, before branding an appointment fraudulent.

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

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