M S GURUSHANKARIAH Vs. G V HALLIKERE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This First Appeal is by the plaintiff in O. S. No. 195 of 1964 on the file of the Third Additional Civil Judge at Bangalore City, and directed against the judgment and decree made therein, partially decreeing the claim of the plaintiff for damages for wrongful dismissal from service. It is seen from the record that this suit was originally filed before the Court of the District Judge in O. S. No. 53 of 1964 and on transfer it has been renumbered as above.

(2.) The material facts, relevant for the disposal of the question raised before us, are as follows : The appellant-plaintiff was appointed by an Educational Society arrayed as Respondent-30 in this appeal, and which was unregistered on the date of the suit. The other respondents were all members of that Society and were made parties herein on account of the fact that the Society was unregistered. The order of appointment is produced herewith as Ex. P-2. According to the terms of appointment, his post was designated as 'Course Director' on a monthly salary of Rs. 800/- in the grade of Rs. 800-100-1500. The said appointment was made effective from 1-11-1963. One of the terms of his appointment was that he should agree to work "for a period of three years at least." The appellant accepted the appointment on the aforesaid terms, and joined duty. On 24-4-1964, though Ex. P-12, his appointment was terminated, for various reasons, which are unnecessary to be set out for our present purpose. Thereupon, the appellant served notice on the Society claiming back pay for a period of 2 months and also damages computed in terms of his salary for the balance of the period of 3 years, stipulated between the parties, during which he was prevented from serving by such wrongful dismissal. On failure by the Society to comply with the demands, the present suit has been filed by the plaintiff, for a declaration that his service was wrongfully terminated, and therefore, he was entitled to damages computed as above with costs and other incidental reliefs. The suit was resisted on behalf of the respondents. Several of the respondents had filed written statements setting out the position that some of them were not at all members of the Society on the date of the termination of the services of the appellant, or that they were not members of the Society at all. On behalf of the Society, it was attempted to justify the termination of the service of the appellant bv setting out the reasons thereof.

(3.) The trial Court came to the conclusion that the appellant's services had been wrongfully terminated and that the appellant's salary for a period of 2 months prior to such termination had been wrongfully withheld and that the appellant had not done anything to mitigate the damages till he found a fresh appointment in the year 1965. It, however, came to the conclusion that on the evidence on record, the appellant might have been engaged in consultative work and for that purpose had the whole of the time at his disposal and that was a circumstance to be taken into account in mitigation of any damages to be decreed. It therefore, came to the conclusion that in regard to such damages the appellant would only be entitled to a reasonable compensation, which according to the Court, would amount to 3 months salary. The suit was decreed accordingly. Aggrieved by the said judgment, and decree, the appellant has approached this Court in this appeal.