Can’t force employees to waive right to legal remedy: High Court

Deprecating the practice of compelling employees to file affidavits relinquishing their right to challenge termination, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that no contract or service condition can deprive an employee of the fundamental right to seek adjudication of disputes before a competent forum.

“Any employee or any person who is aggrieved by the action of his employer—the State or any other statutory authority, has the right to challenge the same before an appropriate forum. Besides, any grievance against a private individual can also be raised in a court of law, tribunal or any other adjudicatory authority/forum. It is trite that the right to legal adjudication cannot be taken away from any party through a contract, but at best can be relegated to a set of courts for ease of the parties,” the Division Bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Deepak Manchanda

Referring to the unequal nature of the employment relationship, the Bench asserted that the relationship between the employer and the employee was unequal and the employee held “very little bargaining power”, especially at the time of seeking employment. “If the employee had raised any dispute qua the same, she would not have been appointed by the appellant at the first instance,” the court observed.

The ruling came in a case where a Panchayat Samiti had challenged the judgment of a Single Bench dismissing its petition against Bathinda Industrial Tribunal’s award holding the termination of a contractual computer operator as illegal before ordering her reinstatement with 40 per cent back wages.

The Bench was told employee had joined service on July 2, 2012, but her services were terminated on July 14, 2017, after her work was termed unsatisfactory. The Panchayat Samiti relied on a clause in her appointment letter stipulating that she would not approach any court in case of termination. Rejecting this contention, the Bench held that the stipulation could not oust an employee’s right to legal remedy.

The Bench also dismissed the Samiti’s plea that it did not fall under the definition of ‘industry’ under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. It asserted that “no such issue was framed by the Labour Court and no evidence whatsoever was led in support of the contention. This has also been noticed by the Single Bench in its judgment that such a plea cannot be raised for the first time in a writ petition without it having been substantiated before the Labour Court”.

Dismissing the appeal, the Bench concluded there was “no merit in the contention” advanced on behalf of the Panchayat Samiti and upheld the Tribunal’s order for reinstatement.