Teacher-poaching: FIITJEE fined for ‘frivolous’ petition against Brilliant

As the maximum amount of compensatory costs under the law could not exceed Rs 3,000,Justice Jain ordered FIITJEE to pay the maximum penalty,besides the cost of the suit.

FIITJEE had filed the suit in 2005,seeking a permanent injunction against Brilliant Tutorial. The institute claimed that by offering lucrative pay packages,Brilliant had been taking away its teachers,often mid-session,which left the students in a lurch and caused immense loss to the company. As Brilliant had no infrastructure to train its own teachers,it was dependent on FIITJEE’s trained faculty members to coach students,it alleged. It also cited the example of two of its teachers who were offered such packages to work for Brilliant.

Brilliant,however,argued that the names cited by the FIITJEE were fake. It also contended that granting a restraint order would result in curtailing the employees’ freedom to improve their future prospects by changing jobs.

Justice Jain noted that while FIITJEE had named the two teachers who had purportedly been approached by Brilliant,they produced none for testifying in court. It also failed to prove their statements by way of documentary evidence.

The court also concurred with Brilliant’s views that in the absence of an agreement with explicit terms regarding the tenure of service,“no employer can perpetually prevent its employee from quitting service and joining another employer”. There was also no anti-poaching agreement between the two that could restrain Brilliant from approaching the teachers of FIITJEE,Justice Jain said.

“Even if Brilliant approached FIITJEE employees and offered better salaries,no legal right of the plaintiff has been violated. There is no contract between them forbidding poaching of employees,” held Justice Jain.