CH SEETHARAMAIAH Vs. ANDHRA PRADESH PAPER MILLS LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner at the relevant point of time was serving as Vice-President (Finance) in the establishment of M/s. Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited, the 1st respondent in the writ petition. In this writ petition the petitioner has assailed the validity and legality of the Order No. CPD/Estt/97, dated 30-9-1997 accepting the resignation of the petitioner submitted on 30-9-1997 and the order dated 15-10-1997 terminating the services of the petitioner as General Manager (Finance).

(2.) The background facts leading to the filing of this writ petition, as stated by the petitioner in the affidavit, be noted briefly as under: The petitioner is a qualified Chartered Accountant having had extensive and wide exposure as a Senior Finance Executive in Multinational companies and as also in public sector companies both in Central and State Sector. The petitioner was selected as Deputy General Manager (Finance) to serve in the establishment of the 1st respondent in September, 1988 through All India open advertisement and selection and he joined the 1st respondent company in the month of January, 1989. According to the petitioner, the 1st respondent company is a Government company in which the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the public financial institutions have been holding the majority of the shares even after 27% of the share capital has been divested in favour of private sector promoters, who agreed to participate in the day to day management with the Government representatives providing the policy guidelines and major inputs in the working of the company. After satisfactory completion of the probationary period, the petitioner was confirmed as General Manager (Finance) in early 1989, Subsequently, the petitioner was elevated to the position of Vice-President (Finance) in November, 1996 and he was also rewarded with salary increase of Rs. 2,500.00 per month and Rs. 3,000.00 per month effective from 1-4-1996 and 1-4-1997 respectively. When the matter stood thus, Sri R. C. Malla, Executive Director, 2nd respondent herein joined the 1st respondent company in May, 1997 and he without assigning any reasons demanded the resignation of the petitioner on the evening of 30th September, 1997 and he threatened the petitioner that he would terminate the services of the petitioner forthwith if the petitioner did not hand in resignation immediately. The petitioner in order to buy peace and time to deal with the matter in a more tranquil atmosphere handed over a letter giving three months notice expressing his desire to resign from the post and the said letter was delivered at the residence of the 2nd respondent in the evening of 30-9-1997 as demanded by him. Quite surprisingly, the 2nd respondent treating the notice of resignation dated 30-9-1997 as a resignation letter of the petitioner, accepted the same by passing an order actually on 1-10-1997, but pre-dating the order as if it was issued on 30-9-1997 itself and the petitioner was also relieved on 1-10-1997 and this information regarding acceptance of the resignation of the petitioner and-his relief was communicated to all cencerned including the Banks/Tax authorities etc The petitioner on coming to know of the action taken by the 2nd respondent, he sent in a letter dated 3-10-1997 telling the 2nd respondent that there was no resignation at all and even the notice of resignation obtained from the petitioner was outcome of the threat and coercion exercised by the 2nd respondent and requested the 2nd respondent to revoke the impugned office order dated 30-9-1997 and to permit the petitioner to resume duty in the office of the Vice-President (Finance). The 2nd respondent did not reply to the letter of the petitioner-dated 3-10-1997. On the other hand, the 2nd respondent passed order dated 15-10-1997 terminating the services of the petitioner with effect from 16-10-1997 in terms of clause (13) of the letter of appointment dated 24-9-1998 and with the said letter of termination the 2nd respondent sent a cheque for Rs. 59,100.00 dated 15-10-1997 and another cheque for Rs. 2707/- dated 16-10-1997 purported to be towards notice pay and pay for the period from 1-10-1997 to 15-10-1997 respectively and the petitioner returned both the cheques to the 2nd respondent. The petitioner claims that after the 2nd respondent made the order on 15-10-1997 terminating his services, he came to know the evil design planned by the 2nd respondent in connivance with the 3rd respondent herein, namely, Sri P.C. Parakh, IAS, Director of the 1st respondent- Company, and the 4th respondent herein, Mr. P.N. Jhawan, Senior Manager (Secretarial Services) of the 1st respondent- Company to remove the petitioner from the service as the Vice President (Finance) and the outcome of that evil design was the order made by the 2nd respondent on 15-10-1997. While so alleging, the petitioner has stated-

(3.) The petitioner, so alleging has filed this writ petition assailing the legality of the order of the 2nd respondent dated 30-9-1997 accepting the resignation of the petitioner and also the order made by him on 15-10-1997 terminating the services of the petitioner as Vice-President (Finance).