Gratuity Forfited On The Grounds Of Governance Termination

Dear Ritesh
As I mentioned in trail, she was served a show cause notice on her last working day after business hours. She had a couple of mail exchanges after the 1st show cause notice wherein she had denied transferring any confidential customer data. But there was no sort of discussion physically nor over phone with management and her. After her last revert to the show cause notice there was no news for couple of days and suddenly one fine day they had forwarded a mail informing her termination without any compensation.
Regards
Ronie

@Eronie7 -
She has been given show cause and there was no enquiry held but was terminated from service. If the termination letter mentions such misconducts then obviously such termination will be bad in law. She can challenge such illegal termination and can claim reinstatement with full back wages. Please consult a lawyer with all documents at the earliest.
My labour law blog: www.labourlawhub.com

Here the ultimate question is that whether gratuity of the employee can be forfeited by the employer the way he likes. No is the answer with reference to the provisions of forfeiture of gratuity laid down in S.4(6) of the PG Act,1972.
First, this is a case of accepted resignation subsequently kept on hold on the last working day of the notice period that too after her relief. In such a situation, the management ought to have continued her services by placing her under suspension or calling back to work after rescinding her relief based on the resignation.
Second, the order of termination was issued on a later date taking effect from an earlier date. Termination can not take place with retrospective effect but from the date of issue of such orders only.
Third, for argument-sake, if the termination is accepted as a proper one, forfeiture of gratuity demands a simultaneous formal notice u/s 4(6) and not a mere informal intimation that too following a claim from the employee.
Fourth and final, gratuity being a statutory right of the employee, even in case of dismissal it can be forfeited only to the extent prescribed in cl (a) or (b) of S.4(6) of the Act that too depending on the gravity of the proven misconduct only.
Therefore, the employee has a valid claim for gratuity against the employer together with interest and she can approach the Controlling Authority under the Act as suggested by Mr.Ritesh.