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The APSRTC & Ors. v. G. Kondal Rao

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 1173Decided 7 Dec 2018
Civil Appeal No. 12243 of 2018
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

A contract conductor employed by APSRTC was dismissed after a full departmental enquiry found him guilty of misconduct; his departmental appeal and review were both rejected on merits. Instead of pursuing remedies under the Industrial Disputes Act, he went directly to the High Court under Article 226. The Single Judge, relying mechanically on an unrelated earlier batch decision involving workers terminated without any proper enquiry, ordered the Corporation to re-engage him and treat his service as continuous from termination to re-engagement (without back-pay, only for regularisation purposes). A Division Bench affirmed this.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that both the Single Judge and the Division Bench had erred by applying, without examining this case's own facts, directions meant for a batch of workers in materially different situations (several of whom had no enquiry at all, or enquiries that violated natural justice): whereas here a full, unchallenged departmental enquiry had actually proved the misconduct. It reiterated that continuity of service can be granted only when the underlying termination order itself is set aside, which had not happened here since neither the termination nor the subsequent fresh engagement was ever challenged. The Court allowed the Corporation's appeal and set aside both the High Court's orders.

Lesson Learnt

Courts should not mechanically extend relief granted in one batch of cases to a differently-situated employee without examining that person's own facts; and an employee cannot claim unbroken service across a termination that was never itself legally challenged and set aside.

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

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