E-Paper
HC awards ₹ 10 lakh compensation to teacher illegally terminated by Jalandhar university
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has awarded ₹ 10 lakh compensation to a woman teacher, illegally terminated from service by DAV University, Jalandhar in 2015.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has awarded ₹ 10 lakh compensation to a woman teacher, illegally terminated from service by DAV University, Jalandhar in 2015.
The petitioner, Rama Rani was on probation, when services were terminated. She had approached high court against the varsity decision in September 2015, but her plea was dismissed in 2017 by a single judge bench. The division bench of justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan order awarding compensation came on the appeal against 2017 order.
The court found that the teacher, who was a probationer was not packed off on account of the fact that her services were not upto the mark and rather it was by way of punishment as extension of probation order was passed merely ten days earlier apparently finding work and conduct upto the mark. “Motive and foundation of the misconduct on account of the fact that the attendance had been wrongly marked was the apparent reason for termination,” the court observed as it came to light that the alleged incident was even probed by an internal panel. But the woman teacher was terminated illegally, on the basis of “stigmatic conduct” and without holding an inquiry and, by not following the principles of natural justice.
Towards the end of the hearing in December 2022, before the order on her pleawas reserved, the court had sought to know about fresh stand of both the parties. The woman had said that she did not want to join back. However, the varsity was inclined to re-employ her without back wages.
The court decided to award compensation observing that it would be not justified to reinstate her in view of the bad blood between both the parties. Now the varsity has been told to compensate her with ₹ 10 lakh within two months.
