An employment contract must be mutually accepted, and damages for wrongful termination require proof of efforts to mitigate losses; mere allegations of forgery are insufficient without evidence.

ORDER

This petition is filed challenging the award passed by the learned Arbitrator directing the company/applicant to pay a sum of Rs.24,00,000/- to the employee/respondent towards the damages and also the validity of the agreement/contract, this original petition has been filed.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties in this petition will be referred to as per their array in the award.

3. The brief facts leading to filing of this petition are as follows:

3.a. As per the letter of Employment dated 19.03.2018, Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement executed, the claimant was appointed in the respondent company. The agreement contains several terms in respect of salary, annual variable incentives, compensation, performance reviews etc., The agreement also provides for term and termination of the employee. Similarly, non compete clause is also included in the agreement. The Claimant was in-charge of the sales and business development of products of both the respondent and Latitude Fintech Pvt Lt. The claimant's achievement of target and generation of multiple business opportunities were appreciated by the respondent. However, instead of paying the bonus and other benefits as per the terms of the agreement, the claimant was asked to leave the respondent company by an email dated 17.12.2018 terminating the claimant's employment. The claimant sent a notice dated 29.07.2019 seeking Rs.37,68,048/- compensation towards Annual Variable and incentives with interest for variables, bonus and incentive dues. Similarly, it is the contention of the claimant that he could not find suitable employment, after the sudden loss of job due to Non-Compete clause for 12 months and had to sell his property to manage his affairs. Hence, the respondent company has to compensate the claimant by paying Rs.24 lakhs, the annual CTC salary offered by the company and Rs.5 lakhs compensation which is the difference between the annual salary paid by the former employer and the respondent/company for loss of income and wrongful termination.

3.b. The respondent/company took a stand that before filing the Arb.O.P.No.331 of 2021, the claimant approached the NCLT, Chennai, which was rejected. The letter of employment dated 19.03.2018 was not duly signed and returned to the company by the claimant and the claimant never accepted the letter of employment. There is no contract between the parties, hence, the Dispute Resolution Clause is not binding on the parties. Even at the time of appointment of arbitrator, this Court recorded that there was genuine doubt as to whether there was any concluded contract at all between the parties. The claimant has not positively proved the return of signed agreement dated 19.03.2018 to the company on 28.05.2018. The claimant has not returned the signed document of employment letter prior to initiation of the arbitration proceedings, therefore, according to the company, there is no agreement existed between the parties to refer to dispute.

3.c. It is the further case of the company that the letter of employment is a concocted one and the claimants copy of letter of employment does not bear the authorised round seal of the company, hence, the document is a forged one. The company was incorporated on 15.02.2018 and is involved in the business of software designing, development etc., catering mainly to the software support needs of financial institutions in India and overseas. Since, the claimant failed to support to achieve the sales target set forth by the company, the company asked the claimant vide email to refrain from working by providing thre