New Delhi, March 19 (PTI): Delhi High Court has asked The Oberoi Hotel to pay Rs 60,000 to an employee who lost his job for allegedly stealing 30 soup spoons from an airline while handling food for passengers two decades ago.

A division bench of Chief Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna, however, rejected Ashok Kumar Sharma’s plea for reinstatement.

The court directed the hotel to pay the amount within a month, failing which it would have to pay interest at a rate of 10 per cent a year.

Sharma’s counsel had conntented before a labour court earlier that 30 spoons could not have fitted into his client’s shoe. But the court had rejected the arguement and upheld the management’s sack order.

The hotel management had dismissed Sharma after he was allegedly found carrying 30 KLM soup spoons in his shoes while loading food in one of the flights at Delhi airport on August 31, 1986.

Sharma had challenged the dismissal order before the labour court, which upheld the decision of the hotel management.

The court rejected the submission made by Sharma’s counsel that 30 spoons could not have fitted into his client’s shoe.

It said the “award” was “well-reasoned” and was “based on the admission of the petitioner (Sharma) himself and the testimony of another hotel employee”.

Sharma then challenged the order in the high court, which ordered the hotel to compensate Sharma.