'Couldn't resume duties due to Covid-19,' Supreme Court upholds order quashing termination of professor

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of an order that quashed a decision to terminate services of a professor in Kerala Agricultural University for having failed to join duties after 20 years long leave taken up to work in a college in Pennsylvania, USA.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal found no flaw with the Kerala High Court's division bench order of August 26, 2022 stating that the university has not followed the procedure prescribed under the rules for holding the disciplinary inquiry and that he was genuinely and bona fidely forbidden from resuming his duties in time due to Covid-19 and health issues.

The bench also noted Rule 15(2)(a) of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1960, applicable for imposing major penalties specifically lays down that the disciplinary authority or the appointing authority or any other authority, empowered by government in this behalf before holding a regular disciplinary inquiry, must record its satisfaction that there is a prima facie case for taking action against the delinquent employee so as to hold a formal inquiry against him.

"In other words, the rule in explicit terms provided for recording a prima facie satisfaction for holding a disciplinary inquiry against any delinquent employee," the bench said.

The court, which dismissed an appeal by the university by its judgment on Wednesday, said no material at any stage has been brought on record to establish that any prima facie satisfaction was recorded before appointing an inquiry committee and passing of the order of termination by the Vice Chancellor on the basis of the inquiry report.

"It is a cardinal principle of law that if a statute provides for doing a thing in a particular manner than it should be done in that fashion only and not otherwise. Therefore, recording of satisfaction before holding a departmental inquiry was mandatory," the court emphasised.

T P Murali had joined the university as Assistant Professor on March 24,1988. After about 11 years, he took a long leave without allowance of 20 years from September 5, 1999 to September 4, 2019 in four blocks of five years each to take up employment in the USA.

He failed to resume his duties on the expiry of the leave in 2019 since he was in USA and suffering from serious ailments. He expressed his intention to rejoin duty via e-mail but still did not rejoin, for reasons of his health and, thereafter, due to intervening Covid-19. He returned to India by the first Vande Bharat flight in July, 2020 and requested for rejoining but was not allowed.

Instead, a memo of charge was served upon him on July 15, 2020 for unauthorised leave and statutory violations related to misconduct. On the basis of the report of the inquiry committee, he was terminated by an order of Vice Chancellor on July 30, 2021.

He filed a writ petition which was dismissed by the High Court's single judge bench. The division bench, however, quashed the termination order.

Rejecting a challenge to the division bench order, the bench noted the bona fides of the professor to resume duties stood fortified by his e-mails and the medical papers on record.