The Madras High Court has held that Government cannot forfeit Educational Certifacte of Doctors on breach of terms of Service Bond.
The single-judge bench of Justice G.R. Swaminathan observed that it is well settled that an Educational certificate is not a marketable commodity, therefore, there cannot be exercise of any lien in terms of Section 171 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
The petitioners were qualified Doctors, who obtained Post Graduate degree in the respective colleges during the academic year 2018-2021. While obtaining admission, they had undertaken to serve in Government Hospitals for a period of two years. To this effect, they had also executed bonds. After, they successfully completed their PG Courses in May 2021, they were called upon to do Covid-19 duty. They worked on temporary and contractual basis for about 10 months. Thereafter they were relieved. They were not issued with any fresh posting orders. The petitioners wrote to the respondents demanding return of their original certificates collected by the respective colleges at the time of admission. The respondents have taken a stand that since the petitioners had not served for a full period of two years as per the bond terms and conditions, the original certificates could not be returned. That necessitated filing of this writ petition.
Ld. Special Government Pleader contesting the writ, contended that the petitioners were squarely bound by the terms of the undertaking which they had voluntarily given with open eyes at the time of admission and now they cannot be allowed to go back on their undertaking.
The Court mentioned that petitioners in another writ petition were identically placed as they were classmates of the petitioners herein. They were granted relief and a different yard stick cannot be adopted in the present case as the same would amount to gross violation of law.
The petition was accordingly allowed and respondents were directed to return the original certificates to the writ petitioners within a period of 15 days.
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