IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

(Civil Appellate Jurisdiction)

Civil Appeal No. 6759 of 2019

En El Es Trousseau Ltd. … Appellant

versus

Ms. Worryika Jain … Respondent

 1. Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq is an Indian resident, founder and CEO of En El Es Trousseau Ltd. [“EEE”],
a manufacturer of environmentally sustainable, socially and fiscally conscious clothing based
in India. Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq is well known in the Indian fashion industry for his excellent taste
in kurtas and sweet temperament, but he is also known for being an odd task master. His love
for classical Indian music and part time work with NGOs means he is seldom in office, but yet
EEE is an extremely profitable company. This can be attributed to his excellent secretaries, who
essentially handle all the consignment transfers, coordination and finances. For the past decade,
his two secretaries, Mr. Vicky S. Moaner and Mr. Ankit Ka-Poor, virtually handled all the
business. However, dissatisfied with the remuneration they received for this hard work, they
quit and joined EEE’s rival, Hum Aur Morcha [“H&M”], run by Mr. Rojha. Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq
was extremely upset, and vowed to bind his next secretary with an airtight contract of
employment.
2. He hired Ms. Worryika Jain and Ms. JoJo Singham to take their place, and entered into contracts
of employment with both of them. The contracts were governed by Indian law, and all parties
had submitted to the jurisdiction of Indian courts. 1 Both were to be paid an annual salary INR
15 lakhs in equal monthly instalments. There were 2 very important clauses in the contract:
8. Term
The employment will continue indefinitely unless terminated by either party in accordance with the
provisions of this contract.
9. Termination
The Company may, at its pleasure, terminate the employment by paying a sum (‘the Defined Sum’) in
lieu of the required period of notice of 6 months, via online transfer.

[The “Defined Sum” is INR 3 lakhs].

3. Ms. Worryika’s friend and lawyer, Ms. Shan Khalbali, warned her against entering into such a
contract, but Ms. Worryika worried about finding an equally well-paying job that also satisfied
her creatively, and entered into it anyway on 10th July 2018. For the first few months, all was
well. Both Ms. JoJo and Ms. Worryika took on the job of coordinating the company, and Mr.
Tariq-pe-Tariq happily went back to his cushioned diwan and music. Then came the Sharma
contract.

4. Twin sisters, Nehal and Nihalika Sharma, were fashion magnates and had recently forayed into
environmentally sustainable fashion. Their manager, Mr. Kash Deep Sang, met Mr. Tariq-pe-
Tariq and cut a deal to display his clothing at the Sharma stores, provided that the clothing was
sent on 10th December 2018. Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq was overjoyed, but unfortunately, forgot to

1 However, it is to be noted that Indian courts do find persuasive the decisions of other common law jurisdictions.
 send across the details to his secretaries. He realised on 5 th December 2018 that they would have
to be informed, and ordered them to ensure the task was completed. Poor Ms. Worryika and Ms.
JoJo worked day and night, but the delivery could not make it on time and the Sharmas refused
to accept it.

5. Angered, Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq called both secretaries into his office on 11th December 2018. He
screamed at them for hours, and then fired them both on the spot. The secretaries protested
saying that they had not received 6 months of notice and refused to accept their dismissal, but
Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq was too angry, so he called security and had them forcibly evicted from the
premises, and cut off all their access to EEE computers and clients. The media had a field day,
because both secretaries had to be dragged out while shouting “nahi jayenge nahi jayenge yeh
zulum hai” [“we will not go we will not go this is injustice”].

6. Ms. Worryika went home and worried, but Ms. JoJo was angry. She hired a thug, Mr. Muktkar
Hatt-Be, renowned for vandalising people’s homes, to go and destroy Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq’s
office. That night, Hatt-Be went to the office and thrashed it completely, causing thousands of
rupees worth of damages and a lot of mental agony to Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq, and then went off the
grid before the police could find him. Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq figured that this was the work of one
of the secretaries, so he angrily instructed his Executive Department [“ED”] to not pay either of
them the INR 3 lakhs (this was lucky for the ED, because they had forgotten to pay the sum to
them in any case). Both secretaries were unaware of this.

7. Two months later, Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq found out that the President of India had promulgated an
Ordinance prohibiting online bank transfers of a sum more than 2 lakhs, given the status of black
money in the country.2 Delighted, he asked the ED to send a mail to both secretaries saying that
the contract had been in force till 11th February 2019, and was now discharged by frustration,
and hence there was no termination payment to be made to either of them. Ms. Worryika and
Ms. JoJo both mailed saying this was unfair, but in vain.

8. Angrily, Ms. JoJo contacted Hatt-Be again to go thrash another office of Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq,
and invited Ms. Worryika to join her. At the same time, Mr. Rojha, taking advantage of the
fortuitous turn of events, offered both a very well-paying job – Ms. JoJo happily accepted but
Ms. Worryika rejected it and decided to pursue litigation instead. Ms. Worryika has great faith
in the legal system of the country, and wanted to sue Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq for INR 3 lakhs due to
her as an agreed sum under the employment contract/ or alternatively as damages for breach of
contract, and/or the unpaid salary. She engaged a litigation firm to represent her, Main & Main

2 The Ordinance is not in question in this problem.

 Co. The partners, Ms. Mannu Main and Ms. Bai-shwarya Main, both advised her that mitigation
and the fact that the media had recorded her saying that she rejects her dismissal may cause
problems, but Ms. Worryika was determined and wanted to go ahead.

9. She filed a suit before the Delhi High Court, 3 which held in her favour on 10th April 2019 and
ordered EEE to pay her both the agreed sum due under the employment contract as well as the
unpaid salary for the specified duration. Aggrieved, Mr. Tariq-pe-Tariq filed an appeal by
special leave before the Supreme Court. Justice Neg-Neg admitted the appeal and framed the
following issues for the final hearing in July 2019:

(i) Is Ms. Worryika entitled to INR 3 lakhs as debt due under the contract or alternatively as
damages for breach; and/or

(ii) unpaid salary for the period between 11th December 2018 and 11th February 2019.

3 The minimum suit valuation required to file a suit before the Delhi HC in reality is immaterial and not an issue at hand.