RAMESHWAR DAYAL GUPTA Vs. ABASKAR CONSTRUCTION P LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India against the respondent for issuance of a writ/order in the nature of certiorari or any other appropriate writ against the award dated 24.09.2004 passed by Labour Court VIII, Delhi in I.D. No. 262/2002 by which award the Labour Court held that the respondent management had committed no illegality by issuing the retirement letter dated 16.11.2001 to the petitioner.

(2.) Concisely, the facts leading up to the filing of the present writ are that the petitioner was employed as an accountant by the respondent in 1972 vide appointment letter dated 15.06.1972 after his interview with the Managing Director of the respondent Sh. B.P. Jain. The petitioner worked with the respondent management dutifully and efficiently till the age of 65 years at which point he received, without any prior notice or warning, a letter dated 16.11.2001 from the Joint Managing Director of the respondent which informed him that he had reached the age of superannuation and therefore, he must retire.

(3.) The main submission of the petitioner is that during his interview with the then Managing Director of the respondent Sh. B.P. Jain, he asked Sh. Jain as to what would be his age of retirement to which Sh. Jain replied 70 years or more if the petitioner could continue to work beyond 70 years. The crux of the petitioner's argument before the Labour Court as well as before this Court is that this exchange between him and Sh. B.P. Jain constitutes an oral contract by virtue of which his age of retirement had to be 70 years or more, implying therefore that the retirement letter dated 16.11.2001 was premature and could not effect any legal action.