Breach Of Compulsory Service Bond: Madras High Court Orders Doctor To Either Serve For 2 Yrs Or Pay ₹50 Lakh As Damages

The Madras High Court recently directed a doctor, who was in violation of his compulsory service bond executed for a period of 10 years, to either serve a bond period of two years or pay an amount of Rs. 50 lakh in breach thereof.

The court thus set aside the impugned order passed by the Dean of Tirunelveli Medical College wherein the college had called upon the young Doctor to pay a sum of Rs. 2 crores as damages for breach of bond condition. 

Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench observed as under:

I am more than certain that when it comes recovery of bond amount, the authorities will adopt an uniform policy throughout the State. Either the petitioner has to serve for the bond period of two years atleast from now on or he has to pay the amount of Rs.50 Lakhs as fixed by the Government themselves. The impugned order is quashed with the aforesaid clarifications.

In the present case, the petitioner doctor, hailing from Kerala joined Tirunelveli Medical College to pursue D.M., Neurology course under All India Quota. At the time of joining, he executed a bond according to which he undertook to serve the Government of Tamilnadu for a period of ten years and in default to pay Rs. 2 crore as damages. Since he was not in a position to comply with the bond, the Dean of the College issued a communication calling upon him to pay Rs. 2 crore. Though he gave his explanation, the same was found to be unsatisfactory.

The Additional Advocate General submitted that though the Petitioner was called for counselling on 02.07.2021 for issuing posting orders, he did not participate in the counseling. The court was also informed that the Principal Secretary to Government, Health and Family Welfare Department has issued a communication as per which the Government of Tamil Nadu had reduced the bond duration for non-service candidates from ten years to two years and the bond amount to Rs.50 Lakhs from Rs.2 Crores. The court opined that this communication would be applicable in the present case also.

The Additional Advocate General also submitted an order of The Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Chennai, appointing the petitioner to work as Assistant Surgeon at Nagapattinam. However, the petitioner was unwilling to serve the bond period.

Per contra, the petitioner submitted that one of the conditions in the above order of appointment was that the petitioner had to pass second class language test in Tamil immediately. However, the court was not inclined to support this view. The court opined that this requirement was needed only if the petitioner wants regular absorption in Tamilnadu medical service which was not the present case. Additionally, if this alone was the difficulty, the petitioner should have put his case on a different putting altogether. 

Thus, the court held that a uniform policy had to be adopted in matters of recovery of bond amount throughout the state and thus directed the petitioner to either serve the bond period of two years or pay Rs. 50 lakh as damages.

Case Title: Dr.Sreejith V.Ravi v. The State of Tamil Nadu and others

Case No: W.P(MD)No.19257 of 2021

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Mad) 304

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.K.Sridhar

Counsel for the Respondents: Mr.Veerakathiravan, Addl. Advocate General, Assisted by Mr.V.Om.Prakash, Govt. Advocate.