Get fair, reasonable opportunity before court
If you decide to challenge your dismissal from service, do not forget to demand salary from the employer while your case is pending adjudication.
It so happens that when you challenge your employer’s action, evidence is lead before the court which for all practical purposes takes the form of an enquiry wherein the reasons for your dismissal are weighed. And in the court, you get full opportunity to defend yourself where you see a full-fledged enquiry being conducted.
In our free country, no one can be condemned without being heard. More importantly, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. And since a proper enquiry takes place in the court, you ought to be paid subsistence allowance to survive and defend yourself.
The such allowance should be your right in case you remain out of employment from the date of your dismissal and if you have exhausted all that you had at your disposal. I believe it is always in the interest of justice for courts to pass a favourable order on your genuine application for directing your employer to pay you at least a reasonable amount of your last drawn wages if not the full salary.
Remember, you have every right to seek your last drawn wages as subsistence allowance, which, if not paid during an enquiry, will cause you serious prejudice in defending the charges, leading to the whole proceedings vitiated for this reason alone.
Yes, law does specifically provide for payment of subsistence allowance by the employer to you during any ‘investigation’ or ‘inquiry’ or ‘charges of misconduct’ against you.
Since you must be protected from that species of injury which is irreparable, even the Supreme Court in the case of The Works Manager Bihar State Superphosphate Factory vs Sri C P Singh and Ors. has held that:
“We express no opinion on the question whether in cases where the workmen have been dismissed by an employer and that dismissal forms the subject of a complaint or dispute, the Tribunal can properly give a direction regarding the payment of wages in part or in whole pending adjudication of the main complaint or dispute.”
And have your read my previous posts on related topics:
Neeraj Bhushan 