New Delhi, July 18: Loss of confidence in an employee could be a ground for sacking them, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The court yesterday upheld the dismissal of a bus conductor guilty of misappropriating Rs 360.95.

A bench headed by Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, while setting aside a Karnataka High Court order, said “loss of confidence’’ was the primary factor and not the amount of money misappropriated.

“When an employee is found guilty of pilferage or of misappropriating a corporation’s funds, there is nothing wrong in the corporation losing confidence or faith in such an employee and awarding the punishment of dismissal,” the bench said.

It said in such cases, there is no place for judicial forums to interfere with the quantum of punishment on account of “generosity or misplaced sympathy”.

The Karnataka state transport corporation had dismissed H. Amaresh, who was drunk and could not account for a shortfall of Rs 360.95 on December 28, 1990.

But a labour court and later the Karnataka High Court ordered his reinstatement.

The apex court, however, said ordering Amaresh’s reinstatement was shockingly disproportionate. It directed the corporation to “immediately discharge’’ him from service as he had “no legal right to continue”.

This is not the first case when the court has upheld the dismissal of an employee for causing financial losses.

In 2001, it had held that a bus conductor was liable to be dismissed if it was found that he had not issued tickets to a large number of passengers.

Last year, the apex court also clarified that employees of state transport corporations were not civil servants and were, therefore, not entitled to protection under Article 311 of the Constitution. The article guarantees job security to a civil servant.

So corporations had the right to terminate the services of an employee on probation even without holding an inquiry if his conduct was not found to be satisfactory.

The court has, in several recent judgments, upheld dismissal.

In a recent judgment, it said a company can dismiss an employee for using abusive language against his superiors. Auto giant Mahindra and Mahindra had dismissed N.B. Narawade, employed as a fitter, for using filthy language against a superior.

In another decision, the apex court endorsed the dismissal of a man who habitually dozed during office hours.

Bharat Forge had dismissed helper Uttam Manohar Nakate after he was thrice found sleeping at work.