PETALING JAYA | A former employee of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) who has fired seven years ago for allegedly filling an RM95 fraudulent dental claim seven years ago was awarded RM180,000, which the Federal Court has now reinstated.
A three-member bench led by Chief Judge of Malaysia Justice Zabidin Diah upheld the appeal and held that a firm cannot change the conclusions of a domestic investigation panel without engaging in adjudicatory duty.
Institute of Technology Petronas Sdn Bhd and UTP were named as respondents since the company is the owner of the university
Last year, the former employee obtained leave from the apex court to appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling that held that the company’s decision to terminate him was lawful
The final appeal was heard based on a single question of whether the company can alter the findings of a domestic inquiry panel without undertaking an adjudicatory function
Due to the company’s and university’s inability to arbitrarily substitute the findings of their own internal investigation, the former employee was declared not guilty without having the chance to present his own defense.
Zabidin said this is in line with the principles of natural justice.
In the verdict issued on Thursday, he stated that the company must organize a new panel and start fresh proceedings if it is unsatisfied with the outcome. The employee will once more be in a position to defend himself.
According to Zabidin, the bench believed that the alleged “unentitled claim” was never included in the charges brought against the former employee. He also said that the institution had overlooked the results of its own domestic inquiry without good cause.
The heard of the appeal included Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli and Justice Mary Lim.
The respondents, represented by S Ravichandran and Chaw Kim Hang, were ordered to pay RM100,000 in costs to the former employee, who was represented by Raam Kumar, Mohan Ramakrishnan, and Norleena Jamal.
The former employee was served with a show cause letter on October 22, 2015, and later appeared before a domestic inquiry to answer two charges of misconduct.
However, the case was continued based on a single allegation that he attempted to submit a false dental claim for RM95 to the university’s group insurer AIA on August 5, 2015.
Instead, it was claimed that his wife had already had this kind of care three months prior at a private dentist’s office in Ipoh.
The domestic inquiry panel reached no verdict about his guilt. The institution, however, opted to reverse the outcome of the domestic investigation and void the employee’s employment agreement.
The respondent also dismissed his appeal on June 5, 2016.
After that, the Institute of Technology Petronas submitted a judicial review appeal to overturn the decision, but the High Court rejected it on January 20, 2020. Later on, though, the Court of Appeal accepted the company’s appeal.
