Sacked ONGC man fails to prove his point to save job

The Bombay high court has held that an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) engineer, who claimed to have been hounded and removed from service only because he was a whistle-blower, had in fact crossed all levels of organisational discipline.

A division bench of justices BH Marlapalle and Amjad Sayed on Monday gave its verdict on a petition filed by Kuldeep Kumar Sethee, 56, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

A superintending engineer (electronics and telecom), he was dismissed in 2007 for posting false allegations on ONGC’s portal. Initially he had challenged his transfer to Mehsana.

Sethee was charged with using “insolent and impertinent language”, casting aspersions on the management (including the CMD and the directors), alleging misuse of power and spreading rumours. He was also charged with misconduct for writing letters/emails to external authorities like the chief justice of the Bombay high court, the Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, the chief vigilance officer and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The judges said the email and letter Sethee uploaded on the internet would suffice to hold that the disciplinary authority was justified in concurring with the enquiry officer’s finding.

The judges noted that other employees who had raised grievances on the feedback forum regarding transfers had refrained from making personal allegations against senior officers. They also noted petitions filed before the HC were used as “a weapon to browbeat the higher authorities”.

“The petitioner, on the other hand, had crossed all limits of organisational discipline, and  therefore the decision of the disciplinary authority that he was unfit  to be continued in service, in our opinion, cannot be said to be perverse, unwarranted, [an instance of] victimisation or [born out of] mala fide [intentions],” the court observed. The judges further stated that “he proved himself unworthy of being retained on the rolls” by his own behaviour and through several of his communications.

Sethee had claimed that he was entitled for further promotion to E5 level on completing three years of service in the post of superintending engineer. But he, being a whistle blower had exposed serious acts of corruption, and an annoyed management began harassing him. He said the CMD exhorted all employees to expose corruption but the ONGC never initiated proceedings against any employee.

Dismissing his petition, the judges said he held a responsible post and “certainly his behaviour was unbecoming of an officer of E4 level”. The judges said the authorities were justified in awarding the punishment of removal from service.