Supreme Court Upholds Quashing Of Disciplinary Proceedings Against Professor Who Couldn't Join Duty Due To COVID

The Supreme Court recently upheld the Kerala High Court's decision quashing the termination of an Assistant Professor who was unable to resume his duties after Leave Without Allowance (LWA) due to COVID-19 pandemic.

A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Pankaj Mithal noted that the relevant disciplinary provision - Rule 15(2)(a) of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1960, mandated that the relevant authority must record prima facie satisfaction that there is a case for taking action before holding a departmental inquiry, which was not done in this case.

“In other words, the aforesaid rule in explicit terms provides for recording a prima facie satisfaction for holding a disciplinary inquiry against any delinquent employee. In the instant case, no material at any stage has been brought on record to establish that any such satisfaction was recorded before appointing an inquiry committee and passing of the order of termination by the Vice Chancellor on the basis of the inquiry report…It is a cardinal principle of law that if a statute provides for doing a thing in a particular manner than it should be done in that fashion only and not otherwise”, the Court observed.

The respondent, TP Murali, had joined Kerala Agricultural University as an Assistant Professor on March 24, 1988. After 11 years of service, he took LWA for 20 years, from September 5, 1999 to September 4, 2019, in four blocks of five years each, to take up employment in the US.

However, he failed to resume his duties after the LWA expired, as he was in the US and claimed to be suffering from serious ailments. He expressed his intention to rejoin via email but could not do so, initially due to health reasons and later because of the travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Murali returned to India in July 2020 on a Vande Bharat flight and requested to resume his duties, but he was handed a charge memo for unauthorized absence since September 5, 2019.

A departmental inquiry was initiated, and the inquiry committee found that Murali had violated the conditions of his LWA by not resuming his duties after 20 years. Based on the committee's report, the Vice-Chancellor of Kerala Agricultural University on July 30, 2021, terminated Murali's services with effect from September 5, 2019.

Murali challenged his termination in the Kerala HC, and the Single Judge dismissed his writ petition holding that he had violated statutory rules by not resuming his duties on time, and his explanation citing illness and the COVID-19 pandemic was unacceptable.

However, on appeal, the Division Bench of the HC quashed the termination order, holding that the university had not followed the prescribed procedure for conducting the disciplinary inquiry. The HC noted that Murali had been genuinely prevented from resuming his duties due to health and travel restrictions. The Division Bench, however, did not order Murali's reinstatement, as he had already attained the age of superannuation, and instead directed the university to decide and disburse his pensionary benefits.

The Supreme Court examined the relevant service rules, including Rule 24A and Clause 6 of Appendix XIIA of the Kerala Service Rules, as well as Rule 15 of the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control, and Appeal) Rules, 1960.

The Court noted that these rules provide that if an officer on LWA does not return to duty upon the expiry of the leave period, his services may be terminated, but only after following the proper disciplinary procedure.

The Supreme Court observed that the procedural requirement of recording a prima facie satisfaction before initiating a departmental inquiry, as mandated by Rule 15, had not been fulfilled in Murali's case.

The Court also acknowledged that Murali had expressed his intention to rejoin his duties and that his failure to do so was due to unprecedented circumstances, including illness and the travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the HC's Division Bench.

Case no. – Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 20817 of 2022

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 663

Case Title – Kerala Agricultural University & Anr. v. TP Murali @ Murali Thavara Panen & Anr.

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