Can We Sue an Employee for Lying About Previous Employment and Joining Dates?

Dear Seniors, A gentleman joined our organization on 21st November this year. He was supposed to join a week prior, on the 14th of November. However, he called me and emailed me that his mother-in-law had passed away, requesting to postpone his joining by a week, and we agreed to that. Consequently, he started on the 21st.

After working for 9 days, on the 30th, he resigned with immediate effect. Meanwhile, we were unable to send him the appointment letter, so he did not sign it. Nevertheless, he completed the joining formalities and recorded his attendance for those 9 consecutive days.

Internally, we calculated that we owed him 9 days' salary and processed that for full and final settlement.

Upon attempting to link his UAN number with our system, we discovered that he had joined another organization just before joining us. He had concealed this information, stating in Form 11 submitted to us that he did not have any EPF account previously.

We contacted that organization and learned that he had joined on the 10th of October, 2016, and resigned on the 18th of November, 2016, before joining our company on the 21st of November. Thus, he had intentionally withheld this information.

Essentially, when he informed me about his mother-in-law's passing and requested to postpone his joining date, he was already working at that other company. They confirmed to us that no such incident had occurred.

He deceived us about the reason for postponing his joining date and concealed his prior employment, providing false information on Form 11.

Currently, we are considering terminating his employment and pursuing legal action against him for committing fraud by providing false information. His deception in writing to delay his joining date to secure employment with us constitutes fraudulent behavior.

As a prominent and reputable MNC in India, we have established protocols to follow, and both my line manager and the management are inclined to take strict action against this fraudulent behavior.

Can we pursue legal action against him? Can we sue him for fraud?

I understand that this may severely impact his career, potentially ending it due to the criminal nature of the offense. However, under these circumstances, I see no alternative course of action.

Please advise if we can pursue legal action against the individual in question.

Hi Seniors,

Did I post something so vague that it didn't attract a single suggestion? Please suggest.

What do you hope to achieve by taking legal action? Under which law will you initiate the action? I am concerned that even if you do pursue legal action, the person may still manage to evade it.

Based on the details you provided:

1. He has not been issued an appointment letter.
2. He has completed the joining formalities.
3. He has submitted Form 11, declaring no previous employment.
4. As per his resignation, you have processed his F & F settlement for 9 days.

You have uploaded the Employee Contribution Report (ECR) as a new employee, generated the Universal Account Number (UAN), and only 9 days of Medical and Casual Leave will be paid to the Provident Fund (PF). If his salary is above 15K, no Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) deduction will be made.

Following this, you intend to take legal action against him for providing false information. However, some others believe that taking action is futile and simply a waste of time and energy.

Thanks,
Vidyadhar Bhat

Dear Seniors, We just want to send a strong signal to everyone in the company. We haven't completed the Full and Final (F&F) settlement yet. We were about to proceed with it, but before that, we intended to deduct his Provident Fund (PF) amount. During this process, we discovered that he already had a Universal Account Number (UAN). Following this trail, we eventually uncovered all the details.

So, we immediately put his F&F on hold. Now, we want to take action against him for lying, cheating, or possibly committing fraud against us.

Firstly, he wrote to us claiming that his mother-in-law had died and requested to postpone his joining date before joining us, which was a lie.

Secondly, he suppressed his immediate previous work experience, which constitutes suppression of facts.

Thirdly, he provided a false declaration in Form 11.

There must be some clauses in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to cheating, fraud, or breach of trust that we can use to sue him.

Question of Gain

Coming to the question of what we are going to gain by doing this—the answer is, seriously, I don't know. I'm just following the orders of my line manager. I personally feel that instead of pursuing this, we should focus on other necessary tasks, like recruiting someone else for his position. However, my line manager and others involved believe we should punish him. So, punishing him seems to be our only intention.

I think we can take some legal and criminal actions against this person in question.

Impact on Employees

The problem is, I think this will not send a positive message to the other employees working with us. I personally believe that if we proceed with this action, it would reflect our vindictive nature, and no employee will feel secure. However, I don't mean that every other existing employee will behave similarly, but still, this could have a far-reaching impact on others working here.

I tried to convince my line manager with my limited understanding and resources, but I couldn't succeed.

So naturally, we are going to make that person pay for whatever he has done.

But personally, I just wanted to know, is this seriously possible? Can we really file a criminal case against him for whatever he has done?

Regards

Dear Aditya,

Be practical and face ground realities; it's a very long process and harassment for both parties. That person has already left, so prudently there is no need to mess up in such matters. Although you should work upon your joining policies or SOPs so that it can never happen in the near future in your organization. Even if you still want to indulge in litigation, then register a FIR against him in a nearby police station and also notify his present and past employers.