1. The concepts of 'absenteeism', 'abscondment' and 'abandonment' in work place sometimes are subject to confusion among employers, which causes them to deal with specific instances, presenting one or the other of these, incorrectly. In modern labour law there is a distinction between each of these concepts. Absenteeism generally when an employee remains without reporting for duty unauthorisedly for short periods of time. Abscondment is often deemed when an employee is absent from work for a time that warrants an inference that he does not intend to return to work. Abandonment occurs when an employee has intimated, expressly or by implication, that he does not desire to report to work.

2. In all these three cases, there is one some form of absenteeism but in the case of abandonment, there are three elements which are generally present, namely that an employee is absent without employer's authority; that he has not been in contact with the employer for substantially large periods of time to explain why he is absent and his intention is never to report to work.

3. This writ petition is at the instance of an employee in the services of the Kerala State Electricity Board, who i