'Lost Sense Of How To Speak & Behave': Gujarat High Court Denies Relief To Registered Society Manager Terminated Over Insubordination & Misconduct

The Petitioner herein was appointed as Manager in the management of the Respondent society. However, on account of negligence towards his duty, the Petitioner was called for some explanation but the Petitioner ended up abusing the superior office bearers of the society. The Petitioner averred that he was 'trapped into a situation' and therefore, his outburst took place. Further, the nature of insubordination and misconduct was not so much to merit termination. It was also contended that the departmental proceedings violated principles of natural justice.

Per contra, the Respondents contested that the petition was not maintainable since the nature of prayer was for executing a specific performance of relief and the co-operative society was not amenable to the writ jurisdiction. It was argued that in the rejoinder, the Petitioner had denied all averments but did not take the case any further to deny his role in misconduct towards the duties.

Justice AY Kogje observed that it seemed that the Petitioner had 'lost the sense' as to how to speak and behave with his superiors and the Managing Director of the society. It was noted that the Managing Director had complained about the misconduct of the Petitioner with regard to the online monitoring system and the sprinkling of water through the Effluent Treatment Plant. The board members unanimously decided that the Petitioner had erred in his duties. He was in charge of overseeing work of sprinkling of water and controlling pollution as per government orders. But due to his negligence, the society received a notice from the Pollution Control Department for not sprinkling water at the designated places which could result in governmental action against the society.

The Bench also observed that the failure in sprinkling water at the right places could result in a huge amount of dust in the surrounding which could harm the respiratory system. The Petitioner had clearly failed to use the equipment effectively per the High Court. Justice Kogje remarked:

"The petitioner is the Manager in this department who is having a separate chamber on the first floor. Therefore, he may be presuming that he would be least affected by the pollution. However, he may understand that, more or less, even his respiratory system will be affected as he performs duty at this department. But, it clearly appears that he has overlooked this fact while committing negligence and misconduct in performing his duty."

Thus, the Bench found the Petitioner prima facie responsible in not complying with governmental orders towards the installation and the online monitoring system. The Bench also opined thus:

"Discipline of the society, dignity of the managerial position, discipline maintained by the other workers/employees of the society and decorum maintained by the senior officers cannot be ignored under any circumstances."

Justice Kogje thus affirmed the decision of the managing committee to discharge the Petitioner from services considering that they had 'completely lost trust' in his services.

Case No.: C/SCA/14878/2017

Case Title: JAYESHBHAI JIVANBHAI PATEL v/s SHREE SAYAN VIBHAG SAHAKARI KHAND UDHYOG MANDLI LTD & 2 other(s)

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Guj) 278

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