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Life Insurance Corporation of India & Ors. vs Om Parkash

Not available · 2024 INSC 870Decided 13 Nov 2024
Not available
Justice Hrishikesh Roy · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

Om Parkash, an Assistant Administrative Officer with LIC, stopped reporting for duty from 25.09.1995 without informing his employer. LIC sent him multiple notices at his address, none of which were answered, and a postal endorsement indicated he had left his job and residence. LIC treated this as "abandonment of service" under its Staff Regulations and terminated him on 25.06.1996 without holding a formal inquiry. The Himachal Pradesh High Court (Single Judge and Division Bench) set aside the termination, holding he wasn't given a fair opportunity to defend himself.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the High Court had overlooked a crucial fact: Om Parkash had joined the Food Corporation of India in a new job as early as 1997, but concealed this fact when he filed his writ petition challenging the termination six months later. The Court held that where an employee abandons service and cannot be traced despite genuine attempts at notice, a full inquiry is not always essential, and Regulation 39(4)(iii) permits the employer to act on the abandonment itself. Since the employee suppressed a material fact (his new job) from the High Court, he was also not entitled to equitable relief under Article 226 of the Constitution. The termination order was restored and the High Court's judgment was set aside.

Lesson Learnt

An employee who stops reporting to work without informing the employer, and who conceals having taken up new employment elsewhere while challenging the termination in court, cannot expect a court to grant relief, suppressing material facts from a court defeats a claim for equitable remedies, regardless of the merits.

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

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