Patna High Court: The Bench of Ashutosh Kumar, J. dismissed a petition filed by a contractual employee holding that there was no infirmity in an order rejecting renewal of his service, as there was a complaint pending against him.
Petitioner herein had applied for the post of Junior Engineer on contractual basis for one year, in the year 2008. He was offered the letter of appointment; but the terms of appointment were only for one year, which could have been renewed later subject to his rendering services to the satisfaction of the employer. Petitioner’s case was that his contract was subsequently renewed several times but in the present instance, the government had refused to renew his contract of service. Aggrieved thereby, the instant petition was filed.
The Court noted that reason for non-renewal of petitioner’s contract of service was that one Manju Kumari, who claimed herself to be his wife (denied by petitioner), had made a complaint of rape against him. The terms of appointment of petitioner clearly stated that if the services of a particular contractual employee are satisfactory and no complaint has been received against him, normally his contractual appointment shall be renewed.
The orders rejecting petitioner’s request for extending the period of contract, did not spell out the specific reason but it did indicate that entire facts were gone into by the employer and then a conscious decision was taken. Thus, it was held that there was no anomaly in the decision of Government, as facts of the complaint alleged by Manju Kumari indicated, at least till the matter is finally decided, an instance of moral turpitude.[Kaushal Kishore Bhagat v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 269, Order dated 26-02-2019]
