Dear Ms. Kavita Vyas,
Specific to the case at hand, please confirm the terms of employment mentioned in the appointment letter. Did you make any agreement with the employee over and above the appointment letter? If yes, then please share the broad content with us.
After sharing the above, please confirm the facts of the case:
a) The DOJ of the employee, designation, etc.
b) What kind of training was imparted, where it was imparted, who imparted it, were training records maintained, and how the training expenses were calculated.
c) Why did the organization suffer a loss? Was it a failure of the employee? Was the work within the purview of the Job Descriptions (JD) of the employee or outside of it?
d) On suffering the losses, did your organization order a domestic enquiry? If yes, who conducted it and what was the process of the domestic enquiry?
e) Has the employee's blameworthiness been established in the domestic enquiry? Was the focus of the enquiry on the accused employee or on what happened? Was the enquiry conducted as per the procedure mentioned in the standing orders?
f) On what basis was the decision to recover the amount taken?
Your major question was about recovery for the losses suffered by the organization. Yes, you can recover, but only a very small percentage of it. Even before recovery, you need to conduct a domestic enquiry. The domestic enquiry should be fair and impartial. It should not be vitiated in any way. A good number of court rulings exist wherein the courts have reduced the penalty imposed or when an unreasonable amount was recovered.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar