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Jeles Education Society & Ors. v. R.T. Bhitale

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4606 of 2006)Decided 30 Sept 2015
Civil Appeal No. 4606 of 2006
Justice J.S. Khehar · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

The appellant-society ran a school in Mumbai and had appointed the respondent, R.T. Bhitale, as a Trained Graduate Teacher in 1987 to teach English and Sanskrit. Two terminations were in dispute: an earlier one from 1988, and a later one dated 16.02.1995, after the respondent sought leave to contest an election but did not comply with the school's service rules (Rule 42(3) of the applicable 1981 Rules), which required an employee in such circumstances either to take leave on terms set by management or to resign if asked, given the disruption to his duties around annual examinations. The respondent neither complied nor returned to duty, and the Bombay High Court had ultimately ruled in his favour and against the terminations, prompting the school's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that under Rule 42(3), the school was entitled to require the respondent to tender his resignation if his election campaign was likely to adversely affect his duties, particularly given the importance of his responsibilities ahead of annual examinations. Since the respondent contested the election and stayed away from work for the leave period he had sought without complying with the school's request, his termination on 16.02.1995 was fully justified. The Court therefore held that both terminations (1988 and 1995) were lawful, set aside the Bombay High Court's contrary order, and allowed the appeal. As a final equitable point, the Court declined to order recovery of an earlier Rs. 15,000 interim payment the school had already made to the respondent back in 1993, given his inability to repay it.

Lesson Learnt

An employee who is given a conditional option to take leave for outside activities (like contesting an election) must actually follow the conditions set by the employer's service rules: simply abstaining from duty without complying can lawfully justify termination, even where an interim benefit was separately paid and need not be clawed back.

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

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