Employee has right to vent, management cannot take action for messages sent in private WhatsApp group: Madras HC

New Delhi: While setting aside a charge memo issued against an employee of the Tamil Nadu Grama Bank, the Madras High Court noted that every employee has a “right to vent” and the management could not take action against the employees for messages that were posted in a WhatsApp group chat expressing critical views against the management so long as such messages were otherwise within the legal bounds, as reported by LiveLaw on Saturday.

“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 observed. Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench held that though an employee was to show courtesy to a superior officer while gossiping privately, the superior officer may come in for all kinds of criticism. The judge added that when the management cannot interfere with gossip that takes place over a cup of tea, it could also not interfere just because the same exchange took place on a virtual platform.

“Judged by the above standard, the message posted by the petitioner cannot be said to attract the Conduct Rules laid down by the management. Any employee is bound to show courtesy to the superior officer in his dealings.

But while gossiping privately with a fellow employee, the officer may come in for all kinds of criticism. If this had taken place over a cup of tea outside a shop, the management could not have taken note of it. Merely because the same exchange took place among a group of employees on a virtual platform with restricted access, it cannot make a difference,” the court said.

In the present case, the petitioner, Lakshminarayanan, was working as Group B Office Assistant (Multipurpose) in Tamil Nadu Grama bank and was also a trade union activist.

He had challenged the charge memo issued in a disciplinary proceeding against him for posting objectionable messages mocking the administrative process/decisions and belittling the higher authorities in a WhatsApp group on 29.07.2022.

The court also observed that though a Government servant cannot claim the same extent of right that a private citizen enjoys as he is governed by conduct rules, it does not take away his fundamental right of free speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the

Constitution.