Madras High Court quashes disciplinary proceedings against bank employee who criticised management on WhatsApp

Every employee has a "right to vent," the Madras High Court recently observed while quashing a charge memo issued against a government bank employee facing disciplinary proceedings after he posted a message on a WhatsApp group criticising the bank's management and belittling higher authorities..Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court quashed the charge memo against the petitioner bank employee, one Lakshminarayanan, a Group B Office Assistant in the Tamil Nadu Grama Bank and a trade union activist. Lakshminarayanan had challenged the charge memo issued during the disciplinary proceedings against him for posting the objectionable messages on the WhatsApp group on July 29. .The Court said the management could not take action against its employees for messages posted on WhatsApp groups as long as such messages were not in clear breach of any existing laws.."There is something called “right to vent”. Every employee or a member of an organization will have some issue or the other with the management. To nurture a sense of grievance is quite natural. It is in the interest of the organization that the complaints find expression and ventilation. It will have a cathartic effect. If in the process, the image of the organization is affected, then the management can step in but not till then,” the Court said..The Court further said that though a government employee, who is bound by prescribed rules of conduct, cannot claim the same rights as a private citizen, it does not take away his fundamental right of free speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. .“The common law principle is “everyman's home is his castle”. If bar room gossip is published, that would definitely attract contempt of Court. But then, so long as it remains private, cognizance cannot be taken. The world has become a global village. It is connected by digital technology. The principles applicable to a chat in a home can be applied to what takes place in an encrypted virtual platform that has restricted access. Such an approach alone will be in consonance with liberal democratic traditions. We are yet to enter into the worlds envisaged by Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World” and George Orwell in “1984”. What the respondent proposes amounts to thought-policing,” the Court said..While quashing the charge memo, the Court also noted that Lakshminarayanan had merely expressed his right to vent and had also readily apologised when it had been pointed out that his messages were in bad taste..[Read Order]