BW Communities

Case Study: Law In A Fearful Society

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<div align="justify">Kabir Sarathy was completely baffled. He had just seen a ghost. Standing outside Copper Dome Apartments, he hailed an autorickshaw, as his knees threatened to fold up. Copper Dome was where Kabir had lived for the past three years. A month ago, he was asked by his employers Gyrett India to move to Hyderabad as the Regional Head. So he called his landlord Pancham Kohli and told him so, adding, "Let us complete the formalities by 25th." Kohli had agreed. As the 25th drew near, Kabir called Kohli for the refund of the Rs 5 lakh deposit but Kohli kept buying time. Finally, on the 24th evening, he told Kabir, "Recession has really done me in. I don't have the money yet, but give me a few weeks; I will somehow manage, I promise." Preparatory to his departure, Kabir explained the situation to Victor, in admin, handing him the apartment keys for later exchange with the cheque. Gyrett India gave employees a house rent allowance and it was up to them to find a residence within that allowance. Gyrett paid the tenancy deposit and it was agreed that at the time of vacation of the leased premises, the employee would refund the deposit. In effect, the security deposit was treated as an interest-free loan from the employer to the employee. These were the terms on which Gyrett had loaned the amount to Kabir too. Back at the hotel and feeling stronger, Kabir called Avijit Das, Gyrett's legal head. "I am a little hassled, Avijit, please let me explain," he began. "Two weeks ago, I vacated the apartment at 3A Copper Dome and the landlord was to refund the deposit money. But three days ago he called me and said his financial situation was tough and asked for time. So I handed the keys to Victor and told him that he should take care since I have to leave. "Yesterday, when I was packing up at the hotel I recalled I had left my electric kettle in the kitchen of the flat. So I took the keys from Victor and went to the flat. But the key would not work. I rang the doorbell thinking the landlord has already moved in. But to my horror I saw a lady at the door who told me she was the landlord's estranged wife! "I then recalled Mr Kohli telling me that his ex-wife has the fourth bedroom of the apartment and it had been suitably walled out, and she had her own separate door with lock etc. It now transpires that she has broken the wall and taken over the house! Avijit, I am very concerned; please let me know what I need to do. Frankly, I don't want any trouble." Avijit heard him out and said, "Okay, first, cancel your ticket to Hyderabad, stay back a week, till we get some direction. Come by to my room at 3 p.m., I should be free by then." Avijit then went to admin and asked for a copy of Kabir's lease agreement and studied it. When Kabir met him at 3 p.m., Avijit said, "Tricky spot to be in, my friend… I hope you understand that the deposit that was paid by the company is in fact an interest-free loan from employer to employee and you will be required to refund it to the company… hmm? "Anyway, first things first. Write to the landlord immediately apprising him of the situation with full details of when you vacated the apartment and all subsequent events. You need to be aware and alert to one fact: notwithstanding your informing the landlord, etc., your liability to refund the security deposit to Gyrett in full, is in no way diminished. I am going to do my best to help your personal situation, but the company's onus is nil in this situation." Kabir nodded and said, "That is why I called you, Avijit. I was completely taken aback by what has happened." Avijit: So tell me, on the date of vacation of the leased premises, did you communicate in writing to the landlord that you have vacated the premises and that simultaneous to the refund of the security deposit, the keys can be collected by the landlord from Gyrett's admin, who you have authorised to deal with this matter instead? Kabir: Why, why do you say that? I called Kohli and then yesterday I sent him an email. Avijit: It's like this. The moment you enter into an agreement for anything, every transaction after that with the other party comes under the governance of the contract, my friend. Tenancy is a legal relationship. Your exit must be formally communicated. What if Kohli says you did not tell him that you were vacating? What if there was a fire and there was damage to his furniture? How do you prove that you had vacated the property and that you were not responsible for the fire? Besides, Kabir, the agreement includes Rs 5 lakh that belong to Gyrett, correct? You needed to be careful. You have a written agreement, isn't it? Then a written lease would not ordinarily be terminated by a phone call. Kabir: Avijit, how can the landlord not ‘accept' a verbal communication as communication? How will he use it against me? Kohli's wife has broken the wall and moved in and occupied the place, illegally! And where was the need for written communication? I called him and he said he would give me the deposit etc. But in two days retracted that saying he was strapped for funds. I told him I was leaving on 30th and he promised to do something. When he had not come till 25th night, I sent him an email and told him he can contact Victor. </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script> <div align="justify">Avijit: And what did Mrs Kohli tell you when you met her at the door? Kabir: She introduced herself as the ex-Mrs Kohli. She said divorce proceedings were on and her husband had left her with nothing. She said, "Don't believe his sob stories. He has more money than is good for him. I have a child to raise. He has declared himself close to bankruptcy and so alimony is poor. He has three other flats and two horses and says he has nothing. This was the only way out, I had no choice". After Kabir had left, Avijit met the CEO, Prithvi Rai, to apprise him of the situation and also so that Kabir could delay his departure. He ended with, "We are, therefore, in a nice soup. Here is a lady who has taken over the apartment claiming that her alimony does not even buy fish feed. Kabir is, of course, stunned by the developments. He had verbally communicated his departure to the landlord, and later added an email. "If the matter goes to court, the landlord can claim that he was not properly intimated that the property has been vacated, and any damage caused to the premises till actual handing over of possession is Kabir's responsibility. If he sticks to that and can prove it, then there is no saying what can ensue. CEO Rai: What do you suggest we do? Should not Kabir and you go and meet Mrs Kohli and find out what is going on? Maybe impress upon her that she will bring many people to grief? Avijit: I would advise against that Prithvi. Rather than going myself to meet her, I would first write to the landlord and tell him of the situation and thereafter request him to meet me at the flat or accompany me to the flat so that we can discuss further steps. I would follow this up with a call. It would not be advisable for Gyrett to get involved playing mediator between the estranged couple. Accordingly Avijit called Kohli and said, "I am calling on behalf of our employee Kabir Sarathy. We need to know when you can return the deposit of 3A Copper Dome…" Kohli didn't wait for the rest of the sentence for he had begun talking: "Arre sahib, main to doob chuka hoon! Three of my businesses have been shut down, I eat once a day... please return my flat soon so I can sell it and use the money for my treatment." Avijit repeated, "I understand a deposit has been given to you..." Kohli said, "But did you return the flat? Where is the flat? Some strange lady lives there now..." Avijit knew the game Kohli was playing. He said, "The lady told us she was your wife, Mr Kohli. So effectively the flat has been ‘taken' by you before we could give it to you! In any case, why don't we meet at 3A Copper Dome? You can bring the deposit and I will bring the keys which you won't need anymore but it is a technicality, ha-ha." When he had folded shut his mobile phone, he noticed the CFO, Amrutham Vasan, in the room, standing with his hands on his hips. Standing a little away was Kabir. Vasan said, "See Avijit, I would not shilly shally with all this elegant talk. Since we are technically in possession of the property, we have the choice of moving the court against the illegal occupant, the lady, and begin that process with a police complaint... I don't know why you are dithering." Rai was shocked. He would not hear of filing a police complaint against the lady. "Arre, you know how the law works sometimes. Haven't we heard enough of how women can be manhandled and abused if this goes the criminal route? I am not having any of that. Besides, she has a young child… we must be a little sensitive!" Avijit spoke in his characteristic monotone: "The matter is simple Prithvi. The most important thing is to hand over possession of the property to Mr Kohli. At least, in this way any future action will have to be taken by him. CEO: How do you mean? How can we hand over possession when it has passed from our hands anyway? If you mean give the keys to Kohli, then there is the business of the Rs 5 lakh too. So, what are you saying Avijit? Oh yes, even the keys are pointless now as a trump card, since she has changed the lock, good lord! Isn't there any other way of approaching this? CFO Vasan (very unhappy with this): That is Rs 5 lakh, what we pay every year as rent for 2 sq. ft. We cannot afford to get emotional. They are taking us for a ride probably. What have we got to do with all this? The matter is simple, no? Take the house, give me my deposit. Kabir: It is not so simple, na Amrutham? The wife has moved in. Vasan: Then what am I saying? File a police complaint to simply ask for your rented apartment back. You are not doing anything more! Kabir: How yaar? I vacated it no! Even my kettle is not there. Vasan: Arre you sales and marketing types, I say! What I am saying is lodge a complaint... We don't have time for all this nonsense. I don't understand all this wishy washy conflicts in your head. I think, next time round we have to make it clear that the deposit is a loan to the employee and how he repays it is his problem. Avijit: This is about much more than the loan, Amrutham. Even if Kabir returns the Rs 5 lakh from a lottery gain, Mr Kohli can sue us. If the matter goes to court, the landlord can say there was no formal notice of vacation of the premises and any damage caused to the premises till actual handing over is Kabir's responsibility. Vasan: Then cut a long story short. This is Kabir's headache. I don't see any context for us as an organisation to get involved. Avijit continued being poker faced and quiet and rocked his left foot up and down. CEO: So Rs 5 lakh is the price we pay to save a lady from harassment and a law that is unfair? So be it. Please expense it out as ‘Repairs to damage caused to the property'. Finish it off. Kabir: Fantastic. Who wins here? The landlord does not get his flat; we don't get the deposit back; I don't ever get a loan for a house; the lady does not even have a legal hold on the house. All we are doing is… I don't know! I feel terrible. </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script> <div align="justify">Vasan: And you had better feel worse. You won't sell a bottle of hair oil to a dealer without him signing an invoice, but you walked out of an asset without a written communication? You know how our law is. In India, you don't need to study law; just living here is enough to get you a Master's degree! Tell me Prithvi, why do you think the lady will be harassed? In fact, if anything, she is the one causing the harassment! Then again, what does the CEO have to do with the law of the land? How can he use shareholder money to justify a feeble assumption of the law and shirk responsibility? Don't get me wrong… CEO Rai: I am not disturbed by your observations, Vasan, I have dealt with the law any number of times and seen it demolish the best of people. The person here is a lady, a single mother who has not much to depend on. Her husband has treated her shabbily... which is all fine. But now to file a criminal complaint will mean she will be called to the police station... and the entire thing can be harrowing... I feel for her child. Cops can misbehave with her. I am not pulling these things out of my head. Messy things happen and finally it is Rs 5 lakh. Please think again about this for a day and let us see if we have any new thoughts tomorrow. Outside, as they were walking to their rooms, Vasan was fretting, and told Avijit: "I guess then he just foregoes the Rs 5 lakh; writes it off as a bad debt and moves on. When a person has such a rigid emotional bent, logic cannot guide him. And who can tell where emotions can lead? He must consider a life with a charity! "I wonder how Rai would treat this if he were not a CEO but a junior technical assistant in a mobile company and that five lakh was his own money that was stuck and he had a sudden payment to make on house repairs and the rains were coming and he had a two-year-old child who would not be able to survive the monsoon flooding in his single-bedroom home. Would he look at the woman and say, ‘Jaane do...'?" Avijit: I am only continuing the argument —this is not a reflection of my views. To answer your question, I guess that is the difference you evolve into as a mindset, when you grow in stature and wealth... where your compassion levels are far higher and you would rather not risk a lady's life or izzat, than get Rs 5 lakh back. Vasan: You can evolve in stature, and that's great. But you must first do what you are here to do: protect the interest of the company and its shareholders. Duty dictates you get back the money using the law. As a genuinely concerned evolved-in-stature CEO, he can make a personal donation to the lady and get back the money for the company. That would be more logical and in keeping with personal evolution — than to force the company to take the path of your personal evolution. Kabir: Very well, then you tell us — given what we know of the law here, the delays in delivering justice, the innumerable episodes of abuse and mishandling of women, that Rai is anxious to ensure that the lady's life is not rendered more complex than it already is, that we are an organisation and, hence, we must be ultra stiff upper lipped, not feeling, emoting humans, do tell me what is the course of action available to us? Vasan: You stepped into business knowing the laws of India and that justice takes time to deliver. Does that mean you will not follow the laws of the land? I'd say step down as CEO before it hurts the organisation. Personal motive should remain distinct from professional calls. Would you use your personal judgement and motives to handle professional situations — say a promotion was not given to someone who you thought deserved it because his mother was hospitalised and needed money? And, if you won't insist on this promotion, why would you insist on protecting a woman you don't know, from a future of harassment that is yet in the realm of conjecture? She may be harassed, but there is nothing to say this is certain. Avijit: Therefore, you are saying that while his sentiments are noble, they breakdown in the face of duty. I do think we must stay within the law, work through the law, stand by the law and empower it. It may seem at times that the law is weak and ineffective. But, in fact, it is the people who wield the law, who are ineffective and unwilling... and that includes people who are victims too...yes? Vasan: Listen, it is people who provide excuses for not upholding the law and who use it selectively based on their convenience who hurt the system the most. Noble sentiments have their place. But duty comes before everything — even if it appears to be the wrong thing to do. <img src="http://www.businessworld.in/bw/image/CaseStudy/case-study-2_mdm.jpg" alt=" " width="200" height="200" align="right" />Next day, Rai said, "We can talk law if we have followed the rule book too. While we have not broken any law, we are now standing on the wrong side of it simply in that Kabir failed to communicate to the landlord the date of his vacating the flat. As a result, if you pay attention, the landlord was unable to take reasonable care to ensure his flat was not encroached upon by his estranged wife. It is my feeling that had he known he would have protected his property. So now, standing as we are on the uncomfortable side of the law, what steps can we take to ensure that this does not cause the lady too much grief, I mean as an organisation which is filing a complaint against her. The difference is clear: she is an individual with no front to hide behind. We are an organisation and can hide behind the Companies Act, our stakeholder duty, our corporate status and whatnot and pretend we are not human but an ‘other entity'. The law is codified. I can Google it and get the entire law on my screen. What is not codified is our intelligence and feelings. I want us to have a human face while dealing with this. Please understand, if the law was always fair and prompt, the common man would not be fighting another's battle. Why, people would not be depriving others of their rights. I value your observations 100 per cent and am even proud that you are able to tell me where I get off, but not yet. "Show me we have a human face; come up with a solution that is not just leaning on the law. Give me a win-win solution…" Classroom/Syndicate discussion If the law is an enabler, why are its corridors suffocating, perilous and user unfriendly? casestudymeera at gmail dot com</div> <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script>