Medically certified post-accident leave cannot be treated as unauthorized without medical-board review.

The petitioner, a Transport Corporation driver, was injured in an accident on 23 February 2015 and remained on medical leave until rejoining duty on 2 July 2015.

The Corporation sanctioned leave for part of the period but treated 29 April to 1 July 2015 as unauthorised absence, notwithstanding acknowledged leave applications and medical certificates. It imposed a six-month increment stoppage and rejected the petitioner’s claim for leave salary. The petitioner challenged the rejection and sought leave sanction and consequential payments.

The petitioner did not appear at the hearing.

1. Whether the Corporation was justified in treating the period from 29 April to 1 July 2015 as unauthorised absence and refusing leave and salary despite the medical certificates and acknowledged leave applications

2. Whether the punishment of stoppage of increment could stand where no fair domestic enquiry was conducted

The Court applied principles of natural justice, holding that a memo seeking an explanation with only four days to respond, without appointing an enquiry officer, examining witnesses, or providing an opportunity to defend, did not constitute a fair enquiry before imposing punishment.

It also held that where an employer doubts a medical certificate, the appropriate course is to refer the employee to a Medical Board; medically supported absence cannot be treated as unauthorised merely to deny salary.

The Court noted that the petitioner’s leave applications for the disputed period were acknowledged and that the Corporation had accepted the genuineness of his medical treatment by sanctioning leave for an earlier portion of the same period.

In light of the accident and medical certificates, the Corporation should have referred him to a Medical Board if it disputed the medical basis for the continued absence. Instead, it rejected the leave and imposed punishment without a fair enquiry, rendering its treatment of the absence as unauthorised legally incorrect.

It directed the Corporation to sanction leave for 29 April to 1 July 2015 and pay consequential benefits within twelve weeks of receiving a copy of the order. The writ petition was allowed with no order as to costs.