Employer right to ask employee to join posting place immediately: Calcutta HC
If an employer transfers an employee in accordance with the company's transfer policy, this cannot be considered criminal intimidation under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). After all, the transfer is not causing harm to anyone or putting anyone at risk.
Asking employee to join posting place immediately is in the right of employer, not a criminal intimidation : Calcutta High Court
In the case of Debarati Banerjee vs State of West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court ruled on Thursday that an employer cannot be charged with criminal intimidation or criminal conspiracy simply because he urged an employee to report to his place of employment immediately.
The statement was made by Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee while dismissing a criminal case filed against IDBI Bank’s Human Resources (HR) manager.
If an employer transfers an employee in accordance with the company’s transfer policy, this cannot be considered criminal intimidation under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). After all, the transfer is not causing harm to anyone or putting anyone to risk.
According to the Calcutta High Court, no employer may be charged of criminal intimidation or conspiracy just for urging an employee to join a new posting as soon as possible, as per the transfer policy.
“Similarly, by asking an employee to join in his place of posting immediately, cannot come within the mischief of criminal intimation or criminal conspiracy (sic),” the Court added.
This observation was made by Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, and as a result, the case against an IDBI Bank human resources manager was dismissed. An assistant manager of IDBI accused the stated HR manager of banding together with other bank executives and formulating a conspiracy to destroy the latter’s character and move him to Tripura from Birbhum, West Bengal.
Following this claim, the HR manager in question, as well as other officers implicated, were charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation.
The HR manager then files an appeal with the High Court to have the charges dropped. He drew to the attention of the High Court the fact that the assistant manager in question had previously been accused of sexual harassment by a female coworker. The assistant manager was transferred to Tripura after she protested to management.
It was also brought to the HC’s attention that it was standard procedure to transfer officers who had served for more than five years in one station to another. In this situation, the assistant manager had already been in Birbhum for six years. As a result, the transfer did not violate the Bank’s transfer policy.
The Court also chastised the magistrate who heard the criminal complaint without checking it. It was emphasized that it was the magistrate’s responsibility to investigate the complaint before issuing a summons.
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