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Tarkeshwar vs. A.V. Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7622Decided 8 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 888/2009CNR: DLHC010237192009
Justice Amit Mahajan

Background

The petitioner had worked as a spray painter for the respondent company for nearly 19 years when he fell ill while on sanctioned leave in his native village in 2006, sent a medical certificate by post, but was terminated after the company called him back to duty and he allegedly could not immediately produce fitness proof. The Labour Court had dismissed his claim, treating his failure to prove his illness as proof he had voluntarily abandoned his job.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court found this reasoning legally flawed: it is the employer, not the employee, who bears the burden of proving voluntary abandonment of service, and the company here had led no evidence at all to support that claim. Given the short absence (about three weeks over the sanctioned leave), the company's failure to hold any proper enquiry before terminating him, and his 19 years of service, the Court held the termination illegal, but since the company itself had since shut down and the case had dragged on for nearly two decades, it awarded a lump-sum compensation of ₹4,00,000 instead of ordering reinstatement.

Lesson Learnt

An employer who wants to argue an employee simply walked away from their job must actually prove it with evidence: silence or gaps in the employee's own explanation are not enough, and mere brief absence after sanctioned leave rarely amounts to abandonment.

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