RALLIS INDIA LIMITED Vs. G LAKSHMI KANTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In a simple matter of discharge from service of the respondent by the appellant in this appeal by special leave a lot of confusion cropped up resulting in a chequered history of the case.

(2.) The respondent was an employee of the appellant company at its Madras office. In 1961 he was working in the Accounts Department but was transferred to the Copying Department on the 24th November, 1961. Respondent wrote several letters to the higher authorities of the company in the years 1962 to 1964 making variousallegations of acts of commissions and omissions on the part of the management. One such letter was written on the 4th April, 1964 when the respondent had also become a shareholder of the company by acquiring some shares. It appears some further correspondence ensued between the parties after the writing of the letter dated the 4th April, 1964. Ultimately the authority of the company framed charges against the respondent which were enquired into by Shri V. K. Menon who was appointed as an Enquiry Officer. Eventually the respondentwas discharged from service by order dated the 23rd December, 1965.

(3.) The respondent filed an appeal under Section 41 (2) of the Madras Shops and Establishments Act, 1947 complaining to the authority under the said Act that he had been discharged from service in violation of the provision of law contained in Section 41 (1). An Additional Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, Madras dismissed the respondent's appeal by his order dated the 23rd September, 1967. It would appear from this order that the plea of the respondent that he had entered into the correspondence which was the subject-matter of charge in his capacity as a share-holder was noticed by the Additional Commissioner, yet without focussing his attention on this plea he held that the services of the respondent were dispensed with for a reasonable cause within the meaning of Section 41 of the Madras Act.