'Bringing Police To Workplace Over Routine Transfer Dispute Amounts To Misconduct': Bombay HC

Mumbai, June 23: An employee who responds to a routine transfer by complaining to the police and bringing policemen to the workplace to question management commits misconduct, the Bombay High Court has held.

The Court further observed that making allegations against an employer before multiple authorities, including those unrelated to the employee's service grievances, can also amount to misconduct.

Justice Sandeep Marne made the observations while allowing a petition filed by Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd. against a September 2023 order of the Labour Court in Thane. While the Labour Court had upheld the fairness of the bank's departmental inquiry against employee Smita Patil, it had held that the inquiry's findings were perverse.

Patil was initially posted at the bank's Pune branch before being transferred to Mumbai. On May 17, 2012, she was transferred to the Vashi branch and was directed to report there on May 18.

Police Complaint Over Transfer

According to the bank’s advocate, Rita Joshi, after being relieved from the Mumbai branch, Patil brought two policemen to the office and alleged that she was being harassed through arbitrary transfer orders. The police questioned the bank's HR Manager before leaving the premises.

Justice Marne held that such conduct clearly amounted to misconduct. “When a bank official is interrogated by the police, the officer is bound to feel intimidated,” he observed.

The judge added that if Patil was aggrieved by the transfer, she ought to have used available internal channels or legal remedies rather than approaching the police.

The Court found that the Labour Court had completely misread the charge against Patil. It clarified that the allegation was not about her refusal to obey the transfer order but about her act of involving the police in a service matter.

“Merely because she reported to duty at Vashi Branch on May 18 ... it did not mean that she did not commit the misconduct of bringing policemen to the branch's office and subjecting the manager to interrogation,” Justice Marne said.

Complaints To Multiple Authorities

The judge also rejected the Labour Court's reasoning that no violence or abusive language had been used. He noted that the bank had never alleged violence or abusive conduct.

The real issue was whether approaching the police over a transfer and bringing officers to the workplace to question bank officials amounted to misconduct.

The Court also examined another charge against Patil relating to complaints she sent to the Reserve Bank of India, the Union Government, the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and even the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission regarding various workplace grievances.

While acknowledging that employees have the right to raise service-related complaints, Justice Marne observed that Patil had “crossed the line” by making allegations about the bank's functioning before several outside authorities.

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Matter Sent Back To Labour Court

Holding that both the Labour Court and the Industrial Court had erred in their approach, the High Court remanded the matter to the Labour Court for a fresh decision, preferably within six months.

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