Employee Bringing Police To Bank Over Transfer Dispute Amounts To Misconduct: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has held that a bank employee commits misconduct by approaching the police over a routine transfer dispute and bringing police personnel to the workplace to question a superior officer. The Court observed that employees dissatisfied with administrative decisions must use internal grievance mechanisms rather than involve law enforcement in service-related matters.

The case arose after a clerk of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank was transferred from the Accounts Department to the Vashi Branch in 2012. Following the transfer, she brought two police personnel to the bank’s Human Resources Department, alleging that the transfer was intended to harass her. The police questioned the concerned manager and left after being informed that the transfer was a routine administrative decision.

A departmental inquiry later found the employee guilty of misconduct and she was dismissed from service. However, the Labour Court and Industrial Court held that the inquiry findings were perverse. Setting aside those orders, Justice Sandeep V. Marne ruled that the lower courts had misunderstood the charge. The Court clarified that the allegation was not refusal to obey the transfer order but the act of involving the police and subjecting a bank officer to interrogation over an internal service matter.

The High Court held that such conduct was improper irrespective of whether there was any violence, altercation, or abusive behaviour. The matter was remanded to the Labour Court to reconsider whether dismissal was a proportionate punishment, while treating the misconduct as proved.