Probation Termination in India: Why Written Assessment and Communication Are Now Non-Negotiable
The termination of a probationer has long occupied an uncomfortable space in Indian employment law, caught between an employer's legitimate need to assess suitability and the probationer's limited statutory protections. Employers have historically relied on the proposition that a probationer holds no substantive right to a post, and that termination during probation constitutes a termination simpliciter requiring neither reasons nor procedural formalities. That proposition, while not wholly displaced, has been substantially qualified by recent judicial developments. In General Manager, Bank of Baroda v. Ashok Kumar Singh (May 29, 2026), the Supreme Court held that an employer's discretion to discharge a probationer for unsatisfactory performance is not absolute. It must rest on objective material, and adverse material capable of prejudicing the probationer’s future employment cannot be relied upon without communication. The Court refused to accept "unsatisfactory per...