Civil courts have jurisdiction over wrongful termination claims in private employment, but reinstatement cannot be mandated if employment is governed by private contractual rules. Remedies may include damages.

Judgment :

Sandeep Jain, J.

1. The instant appeal has been filed by the plaintiff under Section 96 CPC against the impugned judgment and decree dated 10.7.2023 passed by Additional Civil Judge(Senior Division) Court No. 16, Allahabad in O.S. no. 180 of 2015 Puneet Sachdeva vs. IndusInd Bank and others , whereby the plaintiff 's suit has been dismissed on the ground that the Court lacks inherent jurisdiction to try and decide the suit.

Plaint case

2. The plaintiff filed O.S.no.180 of 2015 against the defendants who are IndusInd Bank and its officials, with the averments that he joined the Bank on 21.8.2008 as Senior Relationship Manager at its Barakhamba Branch, New Delhi and by his dedication, devotion, hard work, excellent performance and appraisal, was promoted as Branch Manager and was transferred to Allahabad Branch of the defendant Bank in June 2011,where he worked there till 9.5.2013. It was further averred that during his tenure of 6 years with the bank, he received commendations, appreciation letter for his work and his appraisal ratings in 4 years from 2008 – 2009 to 2011 – 12 remained outstanding and excellent and he earned promotions from the rank of Deputy Manager to Asst. Vice President on the basis of his hard work, commitment and devotion.

3. It was further averred that in the financial year 2011 – 12 he received appreciation for detecting fraud of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakhs on account of Mr.Shobhit Srivastava and recovery of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 3 lakhs was effected against the outstanding of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakhs.

4. It was further averred that as Branch Manager he was not dealing with disbursement/receipt of cash/cheque etc. but was required to examine transactions of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakhs and above from the daily reports that were brought by the staff to his notice apart from his other routine duties and as Branch Manager, he was required to counter sign the vouchers of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakhs and above which were initially signed by operation of staff and Manager – Customer Service and Operations(MCSOP). It was further averred that the defendant Bank had given MCSOP the discretionary power to authorise all transactions and to counter sign the voucher for the transaction up to Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakh and vouchers of transaction of Rs. 5 lakhs on account of 5 lakh and above were to be signed by the operational staff, MCSOP and Branch Manager. At the relevant time Mr. Neeraj Verma was the MCSOP.

5. It was further averred that the prime responsibility of cash officer Mr. Sachin Yadav of the defendant Bank at Allahabad was receipt and payment of cash to ensure cash management is within retention limit, maintenance of cash registers, joint custodian of vault and ATM. The clearing officer Mrs.Amba Lakshmi of defendant Bank was overall in charge of inward/outward clearing, reconciliation of accounts with banks, lodgment of outward cheques, all work related to ECS credits, reporting, returns and effective closure of complaints/issues related to it.

6. It was further averred that the prime responsibility of remittance officer Mrs. Suchitra Prajapati of the defendant Bank was issuance, revalidation, cancellation of demand draft and pay orders to customers, transfer entries,RTGS, arrangement of vouchers, daily reconciliation of FD suspense accounts, daily report checking and arrangement and verifying the vouchers which are incomplete, dispatching a voucher to VVU and respondin