It is natural for employees to nurture a sense of grievance: Madras High Court

Lakshminarayanan was a group B office assistant in Tamil Nadu Grama Bank. A memo was issued against him with disciplinary charges for posting messages which were objectionable and mocked the decision making process of the administration of the bank in a private WhatsApp group. He had challenged the memo and approached the court. 

Justice GR Swaminathan ruled in his favour. The memo was deemed to be invalid on the grounds that chats in a private group could not have a bearing on the bank’s regulatory framework. The court noted that government employees are also protected by the constitution with regard to freedom of expression and right to free speech.  “Judged by the above standard, the message posted by the petitioner cannot be said to attract the Conduct Rules laid down by the management. Any employee is bound to show courtesy to the superior officer in his dealings. But while gossiping privately with a fellow employee, the officer may come in for all kinds of criticism. If this had taken place over a cup of tea outside a shop, the management could not have taken note of it. Merely because the same exchange took place among a group of employees on a virtual platform with restricted access, it cannot make a difference,” the court said as per a report by Live Law.