A three-star hotel in the capital has been directed by a Delhi court to reinstate one of its employees, who was “illegally terminated”, and pay him back wages.

Hotel Grand Plaza, which had terminated its receptionist last year without prior notice or reason, has been asked by the labour court to bring him back on job by paying all his dues and giving consequential benefits.

“Thus, in view of the continued unemployment of the workman, he is entitled to reinstatement in service with full back wages and continuity of services and all consequential benefits,” Sanjay Sharma, Presiding Officer of Labour court, said.

The civil court passed the decree in favour of Manoj Kumar Behal, who was working at the front office of the hotel situated at Green Park extension here and was sacked by the management.

Behal, who stays at the staff quarters of Ashok Hotel at Chanakyapuri, had filed the civil suit saying he had joined the hotel in March 2006 as a receptionist and was getting a salary Rs 8,000 per month.

He had said that at the time of joining, he was not provided an appointment letter.

He said that on March 17, 2011 his services were terminated by the management without any notice, reason and compensation and when he asked for the reason, the authorities did not reply.

On March 16 last year, he had received a promotion letter for the post of assistant manager but he replied saying he had no experience or qualification required for it, he said.

The management, however, opposed Behal’s claim saying he had joined the hotel in April 2010 and had voluntarily left the job in March last year. It also said that Behal was working as assistant manager and therefore does not come within the definition of workman.

The court said that the management has failed to prove that Behal had voluntarily left the job.

It said that before removing Behal, neither any internal inquiry was conducted by the management nor he was served with any notice of termination which is required under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes (ID) Act.

“In my view, the workman (Behal) has successfully proved that he was illegally terminated from the services by the management on March 17, 2011. There was no internal inquiry conducted by the management (Hotel Grand Plaza) before his removal nor he was served with any notice of termination required under section 25F of the ID Act.

“On the contrary, the management failed to prove that the workman had left the job on his own. This issue is decided in favour of the workman and against the management,” Presiding Officer Sharma said.