Employers should exercise discretion and consider the circumstances of each case before imposing severe penalties on employees.

( 1 ) ANNEXURE-A award passed by the Labour Court is under challenge by the employer. The worker, a Conductor, was conducting the bus belonging to the employer on 8-10-1976. When it was checked, it was discovered that the worker had not issued tickets of 25 paise denomination to two passengers and had wilfully not accounted 10 tickets of 45 paise denomination. An enquiry was held and the worker was found guilty of the charges. He was dismissed from service. An appeal preferred by him was unsuccessful. The dispute thereafter was referred to the labour Court.

( 2 ) THE worker filed a claim statement setting forth his claims and inter alia contended that the domestic enquiry is invalid. The employer filed the counter statement as well. It was contended by them inter alia that the worker was involved in 147 previous instances of default. Minor punishments such as fine, warning, censure, suspension, etc. , were imposed on him. It was contended that the domestic enquiry was valid. The punishment was imposed by the Disciplinary Authority after independently considering the domestic enquiry report as well as other circumstances. The appeal preferred by the worker was also considered properly and disposed of. The reference, it was contended, was belated. The employer sought to sustain the dismissal on these and other grounds.

( 3 ) THE worker conceded the validity of the domestic enquiry. The Labour Court, therefore, examined the question whether the punishment imposed is proportionate to the charges framed.

( 4 ) THE Labour Court took the view that the revenue lossca used to the employer due to the default of the worker is 50 paise and that the imposition of punishment of dismissal is too harsh. It adverted to the fact that there were as many as 146 previous defaults on the part of the worker but nevertheless the imposition of the punishment of dismissal is a severe punishment. On this view, it set aside the order of dismissal and directed reinstatement of the worker with full backwages and continuity of service. This award is challenged in these proceedings.

( 5 ) LEARNED Counsel for the petitioner has contended that the inter ference by the Labour Court with respect to the quantum of punishment imposed by the employer is illegal. It was observed by the Supreme Court in The Workmen of M/s. Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company of India Private Limited v The management and Others , as follows :". . . What was once largely in the realm of the satisfaction of the employer has ceased to be so, and now it is the satisfaction of the Tribunal that finally decides the matter". Hence, the Tribunal while in exercises its power under Section 11-A of the I. D. Act is competent to re-examine the propriety of the punishment awarded to the delinquent worker vis-a-vis the misconduct.

( 6 ) IN this case, the misconduct for which the extreme punishment visited the worker is causing a very negligible loss to the employer. A serious question that arises in such cases would be, besides the legality of the punishment, the morality of imposing such a severe punishment as well. While imposing a punishment the employer should first consider whether the delinquent committed the offence with intent to make unlawful gain and to pilfer the revenue of the employer. Was it with intention to gain 50 paise that the worker committed the present misconduct? Was he in such a depraved circumstance that he desired to make an illegal gain of a trivial amount of 50 paise? what was the number of passengers travelling in the bus and is it possible that he would have accidently omitted to issue tickets? Is it not possible that while he was in the process of issuing tickets, the two persons might have boarded the bus? In several cases we come across, such omission takes place in buses loaded with more than the permitted number of passengers. Such may be cases of human error committed by the Conductor while issuing tickets to passengers travelling in a bus with