Eyecatchers-159: HC raps school for retaining certificates of resigned teachers

I came across this news with the above caption in the Chennai edition of The Times of India dated July 20, 2012.  A gist of the article:

The Madras High Court came down strongly on a private school for refusing to return the original certificates of three teachers who had resigned and ordered police to initiate criminal action against the management. The management admitted the certificates were in its custody but said that at the time of entering service, it was agreed that any teacher leaving service in the middle of an academic year would have to pay back three months salary to get back original certificates and contended that as such no direction could be issued by the court for filing a case.  The court disagreed and said the original certificates were properties that could not be transferred even by means of an agreement and held that the agreement was unlawful.

It is a common practice in many private institutions.  I myself know of many instances where private institutions do this sort of thing and blackmail the employees and how agonising it was for the employees; the managements would make the employees cringe before them and beg.  It is heartening to see an end to this blackmail and I would like to join the affected parties and thank the court for the verdict.

Grateful thanks to The Times of India.