A.S. SHAJI, ADUVAKKAPARAMBIL HOUSE, GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL EAST, NARACKAL P.O., ERNAKULAM DISTRICT Vs. UNION OF INDIA, REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF DEFENCE, HEADQUARTERS, SOUTH BLOCK, NEW DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Issue: The Service jurisprudence, including the judicial precedents, recognises the doctrine of abandonment: an employee voluntarily giving up his service, say, by continued absence from duty. Here an employee was found to have been continuously absent without leave-on medical grounds though. The employer disengaged him. Has the employer been justified in disengaging the employee on the grounds of abandonment of service despite the employee's defence of illness? Introduction:

(2.) Here the petitioners are the employers; the respondent is an employee. When the employee absented himself for long spells from duty, albeit, under the cover of illness; the employer dispensed with his services: It disengaged the employee. Assailing the employer's action, the employee filed O.A. No. 642 of 2008 before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Branch. Through Order, dated 27.08.2009, (Ext.P1) the learned Tribunal directed the employer to reinstate the employee. Amelioratively, the Tribunal permitted the employer to subject the employee to suitable medical tests to ascertain the employee's fitness to resume duty. Aggrieved by the direction of re-engagement, the employer has filed this writ petition. Facts:

(3.) The facts in brief are that the employee was appointed a casual labourer on 21.11.1983 in the employer's Southern Naval Command, Kochi. In the gradation list prepared in course of time by the employer, the employee's name was shown at Sl. No. 74.