Sacked NFDC chief moves HC challenging 'stigmatic' termination letter

Nina Lath Gupta, the sacked managing director of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), today approached the Delhi High Court challenging its single judge's order disposing of her plea against the letter of termination of her services.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Deepa Sharma sought responses from the Centre and the NFDC on Gupta's appeal seeking to set aside the April 23 order of the single judge.

The order had said that once the paragraph in the termination letter containing the allegations was withdrawn, no orders were required to be passed in this regard.

The bench today refused to grant interim relief of staying the single judge order and said it would examine the issue whether the termination letter was stigmatic.

"We are issuing notice on the plea because the fulcrum of the challenge is that the allegations are stigmatic," it said.

The court also refused to pass an order on the plea by Gupta's counsel that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry shall not appoint any other person for the post of NFDC chief till the next date of hearing, i.e. August 24.

Initially, the bench said the allegations in the termination letter were stigmatic on the face of it and if the allegations were the foundation of the termination, it cannot be done without conducting an enquiry.

The government's counsel reiterated that they have already withdrawn the termination letter's paragraph 2 in which the allegation were made against Gupta.

The 52-year-old officer, in her appeal, contended that the single judge had grossly erred in acceding to the ministry's request to withdraw paragraph 2 of the termination letter and the claim that the stigma has been removed.

The single judge had disposed of her plea after the I&B Ministry had said it would remove the paragraph in the first sacking order of February 27 which had cited irregularities and failure to adhere to prescribed procedures as reasons for firing Gupta from the post of NFDC Managing Director.

On April 24, the ministry issued a fresh termination letter removing this paragraph.

In the concerned paragraph, Gupta was charged with procedural lapses in releasing advertisements to select private channels beyond the 5 per cent limit prescribed in the Electronic Media Policy, not refunding 15 per cent commission to ministries that got advertisements issued through NFDC, and charging one ministry Rs 4.29 crore in excess of actual expenditure.

She said that merely by withdrawing the stigmatic paragraph and directing the passing of a subsequent termination letter, which may be purportedly "innocuously and cleverly worded" to suggest that it is a termination simplicitor, would still be punitive especially when the subsequent sacking order has its foundation from "unsubstantiated allegations" mentioned in the earlier letter.

"It is settled law that ex-facie stigmatic termination is punitive in nature and ought to be set aside," the plea said, adding that the government has not disclosed the material to Gupta or to the single judge, on whose basis the allegations were founded.

Gupta claimed that her services were terminated by way of "a stigmatic order, illegally and arbitrarily without even conducting any enquiry or giving her an opportunity to confront such unsubstantiated allegations."