Esci
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                                  *         IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
                                  %                                                          Judgment reserved on: 03.09.2024
                                                                                          Judgment pronounced on: 10.09.2024
                                  1.        These three writ petitions have been filed under Article 226 of the
                                  Constitution of India to assail common order passed by the Central
                                  2.1       The present petitioners are dentists by profession and at the time of
                                  joining the course of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (Batches of 2014-19, 2015-
                                  20, 2016-21 & 2017-22) in the Employees State Insurance Corporation
                                  Dental College and Hospital, Rohini, Delhi (hereinafter referred to as “the
                                  ESIC”), they submitted their individual service bonds in favour of the ESIC
                                  in lieu of the ESIC agreeing to incur the expenditure for their education.
                                  pay to the ESIC the bond amount of Rs. 7,50,000/- each with interest at a
                                  rate of 15% per annum.
                                  2.3       The policy regarding tenure of those service bonds was revised from
                                  time to time by the ESIC.                            Finally, by way of communications dated
                                  28.07.2020, followed by 30.03.2021, the ESIC instructed all its Institutions
                                  to reduce the bond tenure to one year.
                                  2.5       By way of email dated 03.08.2023, the ESIC called upon the
                                  petitioners to render their services in terms with the revised bonds for a
                                  period of one year. In pursuance of the said communication, the petitioners
                                  joined the service of the ESIC, where they continued to serve till the date of
                                  institution of their respective Original Applications in the Tribunal and Writ
                                  Petitions in this Court.
                                              11. We have perused the bond signed by the applicants, In terms of the
                                              same, the respondents were obliged to seek the services of the
                                              applicants, if required that is to say need basis. Evidently, the
                                              respondents did not require the services of the applicants at the
                                              relevant point of time and therefore, the applicants did not serve the
                                              respondents. During the interregnum, the tenure of the service bond
                                              has been reduced considerably from five years to three years and
                                              thereafter to one year. Only after the revised instructions were issued,
                                              the respondents sought the services of the applicants. It is clarified
                                              that the applicants’ services were sought on 05.08.2023 and by then,
                                              the Corporation had issued revised instructions with respect to bond
                                              period to one year and the applicants have joined on different dates in
                                              pursuance of offer extended to them after 05.08.2023. Since the
                                              revised conditions dated 28.07.2020 were operative, when the
                                              applicants joined, according to us, they were obliged to serve only for
                                              about one year.
                                              12. Learned counsel for the applicants has submitted that the
                                              applicants have not signed any new bond in pursuance to their
                                              employment offered on 05.08.2022. Be that as it may, the instructions
                                              changed in the interregnum, the service bond signed by the applicants
                                              at the relevant point of time ceases to exist after the expiry of five
                                              years and the same was not operated upon by both the respondents
                                              and the applicants.”
                                  treat the said service bonds as a contract between the ESIC and the
                                  petitioners. It was contended on behalf of respondents that the ESIC is well
                                  within its rights to reduce the tenure of service in terms with the said bonds.
                                                                                BOND
                                                                (Total value of Rs 100/- Stamp Paper)
                                                                  (FOR BDS & MBBS STUDENTS
                                              TO KNOW All MEN BY THESE PRESENTS THAT We, ______
                                              son/daughter/wife of ______ residing at ______ (herein-after called
                                              the Bounden) and
                                              (1) Shri ______ (Parents/Guardian) residing at ______(Here enter
                                              address) (hereinafter called 'the surety) do hereby bind ourselves and
                                              each of us, our and each of our heirs, executors and administrators
                                              jointly and severally to pay to the Employee's State Insurance
                                              Corporation (hereinafter referred to as 'the Corporation') on demand
                                              the total amount of Rs 7,50,000 (Rupees Seven lakh fifty thousand
                                              only) the amount spent by Corporation for their studies ·with 15%
                                              interest as fixed by Corporation.
                                              Signed this .......... Day of .......... in the year .......... by the bounden
                                              Shri/Smt .......
                                                                                                                               Signature
                                              In the presence of Witness:
                                              1. ······································ 1. Signed by bounden (Name & Address)
                                              (Name & Address with official seal)
                                              2. ··································· 2. Signed by Shri/Smt ................. (The Surety)
                                              (Name & Address)                    (Residential Address with proof is compulsory)
                                              NOW the condition of the above written obligation is that in the event
                                              the Bounden after successful completion of the Graduate course of
                                              study to which he/she was selected, fails to serve the Corporation for
                                              period of five years, if required by the Corporation, the Bounden and
                                              sureties shall forthwith pay to the Corporation for violation of
                                              conditions, on demand the total amount of Rs 7,50,000/- (Rupees
                                              Seven lakh fifty thousand only) the amount spent by the Corporation
                                              for their studies along with 15% interest as fixed by the Corporation.
                                              On the quantum of amount payable by the Bounden and the sureties,
                                              the decision of the Corporation shall be final and legally binding on
                                              the bounden and sureties and upon the payment of such sum the above
                                              written obligation shall be discharged.
                                  8.        The email dated 03.08.2023 (printout whereof has been filed by the
                                  petitioners at pdf 288 of W.P.(C) 12260/2024) issued certain clear
                                  instructions to the petitioners. Clause 4 of the said instructions specifically
                                  clarified as under:
                                                 “4. Bond service will be for ONE YEAR ONLY. After one year, the
                                                candidates will be relieved from the bond service irrespective of the
                                                bond duration they have signed. No extension will be given.”
                                  9.        The salient features of the said service bond, as reflected from the
                                  above extract are that it is a unilateral document executed by the petitioners
                                  and their respective sureties; that the Dean/Administrative Officer of ESIC
                                  Medical College/ESI PGIMSR/ Dental College would sign the same as a
                                  witness only and not as an executor party; that the said bonds were got
                                  executed from the petitioners in lieu of the expenses incurred by the ESIC
                                  on education of the petitioners; that the said bonds clearly stipulate the
                                  10.       That being so, we are of the clear view interalia that the said bonds do
                                  not and cannot create any right to employment in the petitioners. The
                                  petitioners having already enjoyed benefit in the form of expenses incurred
                                  by the ESIC on their education, grant of right to employment in them on the
                                  basis of the said bonds would be granting them double benefit, which is
                                  nowhere contemplated in the said bonds or justified in any manner.
                                  11.       Merely because at a subsequent stage the ESIC opted to reduce the
                                  service period from five/three years to one year, it cannot be read to their
                                  detriment, much less to the benefit of the petitioners in the form of creation
                                  of right to employment under the ESIC. It was completely a matter of
                                  discretion for the ESIC to avail services of the bond executors for any period
                                  depending upon the requirement, though that period could not be more than
                                  the period of five/three years contemplated in the said bonds. By reducing
                                  the bond period to one year, the ESIC shortened the benefit which it could
                                  avail from the said bonds; and the ESIC cannot be compelled to avail
                                  services of the bond executors for the complete bond period irrespective of
                                  their requirement. There is not even a whiff of any stipulation in the said
                                  bonds to the effect that the ESIC cannot reduce the benefit in terms of tenure
                                  they want to avail out of the said bonds.
                                  12.       Besides, assumably if the petitioners felt that joining services with the
                                  ESIC for a period of one year would block their career to that extent, they
                                  could have refused to join services and could have resisted to pay bond
                                  amount to the ESIC claiming that either they would work for five years or
                                  not at all. But that was not done.
                                  13.       The petitioners themselves have always been conscious that the said
                                  bonds do not create right to employment in their favour. That is the reason
                                  why none of them claimed or even sought employment from the ESIC
                                  immediately after completion of their respective course. Not just this, the
                                  petitioners joined services with the ESIC specifically for a period of one
                                  year. Although the petitioners did submit a representation to the effect that
                                  the period of service ought to be five/three years, but that representation
                                  having met no positive response, they abandoned the same and joined the
                                  one year service with the ESIC.
                                  14.1 In the case of Adeeba Asrar (supra), the only issue was as to whether
                                  a petition for quashing of the advertisement for recruitment of doctors is
                                  maintainable directly before the High Court, without first approaching the
                                  Administrative Tribunal. In the six paragraph order, the learned Single
                                  Judge of this Court answered the issue in negative.
                                  14.3 In the case of Hemant Kumar Verma (supra), the issue before the
                                  Hon’ble Supreme Court was parity qua service conditions between the in-
                                  service doctors and the doctors serving under service bonds. The issue was
                                  decided in negative.
                                  14.5 In the case of Krishna Rai (supra), the issue before the Hon’ble
                                  Supreme Court was as to whether the doctrine of estoppel and acquiescence
                                  would prevail over statutory service rules prescribing the procedure for
                                  promotion of Class IV employees to Class III, working in the Banaras Hindu
                                  University. That is completely distinct from the issue before us.
                                  14.6 In the case of Manuelsons Hotels Pvt. Ltd. (supra), the issue before
                                  the Hon’ble Supreme Court was the scope of the doctrine of promissory
                                  estoppel, which again is not the issue involved in the present case, it being
                                  nobody’s case that by way of the subject service bonds, the ESIC had
                                  promised to give employment to the petitioners. As described above, in the
                                  present case, the said bonds encumbered obligation only on the petitioners to
                                  serve the ESIC according to the requirement of the latter.
                                  14.7 In the case of Brahmaputra Mettalics Ltd. (supra) also the issue
                                  involved was the scope of promissory estoppel in the situation where the
                                  State Government had promised certain rebates to certain industries but did
                                  not notify the rebates and the Hon’ble Supreme Court held the State
                                  Government bound to grant those rebates. In the present case, to repeat,
                                  there was no promise of the ESIC to provide employment to the petitioners.
                                  15.       In view of above discussion, we are unable to find any infirmity in the
                                  impugned order, so the same is upheld and the present petitions are
                                  dismissed.
                                                                                                                      GIRISH KATHPALIA
                                                                                                                           (JUDGE)