Mumbai: The Bombay high court has given relief to an employee of the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) and saved his job.
The petitioner, Dinesh Kailas Kangude, was a project-affected person who got a job in 1997 as a clerk in the civic body.
After 21 years, however, the corporation came to learn that Mr Kangude was only 17 years and 10 months old at the time of his appointment. Hence, it issued him a show-cause notice asking why he should not be terminated.
The court, however, did not find any mistake on Mr Kangude’s part and said that he had furnished all the relevant documents pertaining to his birth during the appointment process.
A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice M.S. Karnik was hearing the petition filed by Mr Kangude, according to which he was born on July 2, 1980.
Mr Kangude stated that on August 7, 1997 he came to know about a vacancy for the post of clerk in the MBMC. There is no dispute that the petitioner was educationally qualified for this post, the plea stated. Mr Kangude had joined duty on May 2, 1998, after which the municipal council opened his service book where the birth date was shown as “02.07.1980”.
One Mr Rajiv Deshpande, however, later filed a complaint with the civic body against Mr Kangude, saying that the latter had joined duty before he had attained majority. Thereafter, an inquiry was initiated under which Mr Kangude was held guilty.
Mr Kangude’s counsel N.V. Bandivadekar argued that during his appointment, his client had submitted all documents pertaining to his birth along with other documents and he never suppressed anything. Mr Bandivadekar also brought to the notice of the court that his client had completed 21 years of services.
To this, the MBMC’s counsel, R.N. Bubna, submitted that he did not dispute the eligibility aspect but stated that Mr Kangude was not eligible to be appointed was still a minor at the time of initial appointment.
The court, while allowing the petition, said, “We find that there is no fault on the part of the petitioner inasmuch as at the time of appointment. The petitioner cannot be held responsible for this and considering a similar judgment of the Aurangabad high court, we protect the service of the petitioner.”
Eventually, the court quashed and set a side the show-cause notice as well as the inquiry against Mr Kangude. The court, however, directed Mr Kangude to pay two months’ salary to the MBMC within fifteen days.
