In Brief
A security guard employed by Kurukshetra University was terminated following a departmental enquiry into allegations of misconduct. The State referred the matter to the Labour Court under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which found the enquiry defective and declared the termination illegal retrenchment. The High Court upheld this. The Supreme Court held that a punishment-based termination cannot be retrenchment under Section 2(oo). It remanded the case to the Labour Court, directing it to first decide the legality of the enquiry as a preliminary issue, and if found defective, to afford the employer an opportunity to prove misconduct by independent evidence before deciding the termination's validity.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.