The court quashed National Insurance Company’s removal of a former employee who had been absent for more than 600 days, finding that serious illness, repeated communication and leave requests did not establish an intention to resign.
The Bombay High Court has set aside National Insurance Company’s decision to remove a former employee from service, ruling that long absence caused by serious illness cannot automatically be treated as giving up a job. The court also said the insurer acted without giving him notice or a proper hearing, and ordered it to restore his retirement dues, including pension and provident fund benefits.
According to the judgment delivered on October 12 by Justices R.I. Chagla and Firdosh P. Pooniwalla, the employee had worked for the company for 36 years and had repeatedly said that worsening health problems prevented him from reporting to duty. The court accepted his account that he needed treatment in Mumbai, had asked for transfer on medical grounds, and had kept the company informed about his condition through leave requests and medical certificates.
The bench said an employer must show clear evidence that a worker intended, consciously and permanently, to sever the employment relationship before treating absence as abandonment. It rejected the company’s argument that more than 600 days of absence by itself justified removal, and found that the employee’s conduct, including his requests for leave, transfer and even voluntary separation, pointed in the opposite direction. The court also said alleged defaults on housing and vehicle loans could not be used to defeat his challenge to the removal order.
The court therefore quashed both the April 8, 2013 removal order and the appellate rejection that followed in 2017. It directed National Insurance to pay back wages for periods when the employee was actually working and to release his terminal benefits. The ruling adds to a line of decisions in which the Bombay High Court has scrutinised claims of abandonment, particularly where illness and repeated communication with an employer are part of the record.
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