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U.P. State Road Transport Corporation vs Brijesh Kumar

Not available · 2024 INSC 638Decided 28 Aug 2024
Not available
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Pankaj Mithal

Background

The respondent's father, a regular bus conductor with UPSRTC, died in service in 2003 while the respondent was still a minor. Years later, the respondent was given an appointment, which UPSRTC's Assistant Regional Manager terminated in 2016. The respondent challenged the termination, and a Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court set the termination aside, holding (among other things) that the appointment had been made on a permanent basis under the "Dying-in-Harness" compassionate appointment rules: a finding a Division Bench of the High Court also upheld on appeal, prompting UPSRTC to approach the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed that the termination order was legally unsustainable because it was effectively a stigmatic dismissal passed without following the principles of natural justice (i.e., without giving the respondent a fair hearing), and so upheld the quashing of the termination. However, it disagreed with the High Court's reasoning that the appointment was of a permanent nature under the compassionate-appointment scheme; instead, it held the appointment was in fact contractual in character, leaving the respondent free to seek regularisation separately if he could establish entitlement under the applicable rules. The appeal was thus only partly allowed: the termination stayed quashed, but on a different legal basis than the High Court had used.

Lesson Learnt

An employer cannot terminate a compassionate appointee without following fair procedure, but a court quashing such termination must still get the legal character of the appointment right, being reinstated does not automatically mean the job is treated as a permanent one if the underlying scheme only supports a contractual appointment.

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

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