DIPAK CHOUDHURY Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SUBJECT matter of these writ petitions being related, the same were heard together and would be governed by this common judgment. Popular Drug House Private Limited, a company incorporated under the companies Act, 1956 (hereafter the Company), its Managing Director and two other directors are the four petitioners in that order in W. P. No. 5137 (W) of 2008.

(2.) THE private respondents in that writ petition (respondents 4 to 25) are the employees of the Company who according to these petitioners are unauthorisedly and illegally running the medicine shop of the Company.

(3.) THE petitioners' case is that the business of the said Company which commenced in the fifties was prospering till 2002 when the staff and employees of the company started creating disturbances in smooth running of the medicine shop. The private respondents in the petition are guilty of misbehaviour, insubordination, indiscipline, irregularity and serious misdemeanor like siphoning of funds, etc. Illegal demands were raised by the Union of the employees which ultimately failed. It was, thereafter, discovered that the private respondents had been selling medicines to customers without issuing cash memo. There was unauthorized purchase of medicines by the private respondents which were not properly accounted for in the books of account of the company. The cashier stopped handing over cash to the Company. A bank account was opened in the United Bank of India, Shyambazar Branch in the name of the Company by the private respondents.