Justice GR Swaminathan said the petitioner’s act would not amount to misconduct or even attract the Conduct Rules.

After a bank employee’s criticism of his superiors in a WhatsApp group chat almost cost him his job, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has come to his rescue by observing that the petitioner had only exercised his ‘right to vent’. Allowing a petition filed by A Lakshminarayanan, a Group B office assistant (multi-purpose) at Tamil Nadu Grama Bank in Thoothukudi, seeking a direction to quash the charge memo issued to him, Justice GR Swaminathan said the petitioner’s act would not amount to misconduct or even attract the Conduct Rules.

“Every employee or a member of an organisation 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 organisation that the complaints find expression… It will have a cathartic effect. If in the process, the image of the organisation is affected, then the management can step in but not till then,” he observed.

Moreover, the petitioner, who is also an office bearer of the Tamil Nadu Grama Bank Workers Union, had not expressed the opinion publicly. He had only shared it among the members of a private WhatsApp group started by him, the judge pointed out. If the conversation had taken place at home or at a tea shop, the management could not have taken note of it. Merely because it took place among a group of employees on a virtual platform with restricted access, it cannot make a difference, he added.