The DS Group, a business “conglomerate” which also sells gutkha, was left with a bad taste in the mouth Wednesday after the Delhi High Court slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh for putting out an employment advertisement inviting “retired judges with contacts in the judiciary” as its “Head – Legal”.The advertisement, which appeared in the Power Jobs column of Hindustan Times and on job website naukri.com on September 4, 2007, said the company — DS Group — required as “Head – Legal” a candidate whose profile “must be LLB, LLM or a retired judge with contacts in the judiciary”. The firm insisted that only those candidates with at least 12 to 15 years experience in the legal field should contact them at their Noida office.The material was first spotted by a Delhi High Court lawyer Sunita Tiwari. “I was shocked to find the advertisement in Hindustan Times. It took me an entire day to believe that they were actually inviting retired judges as their employees,” said Tiwari who initiated action against the DS Group.The next day, Tiwari went to court against the “business house” she described as “a multi-crore company with popular brands like Catch Spring Water, Catch Flavoured Water, PassPass, Rajnigandha, Baba Zarda, Tulsi gutkha, etc”. Her petition asked the court to move against the firm’s “belief” that “having contacts in the judiciary helps in better management of its business”.The case saw DS (Dharampal Satyapal) Group, Shveta Khanna (featured as the group’s contact person in the advertisement), Info-Edge (India) Ltd, which runs the website naukri.com, and the Hindustan Times Ltd through its Chief Editor arrayed as parties. Today, over a year after the advertisement made its appearance, DS Group appeared before the Delhi High Court, not to argue their brief but to “profusely apologise” for the advertisement which, according to Tiwari, gave the picture that “the advertisers are confident and believe that having contacts in the judiciary would fetch them favourable orders or relief”. The DS Group counsel, Deepak Dhingra, told a division bench of Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Manmohan that he was ready to accept whatever penalty the court decided on.Justice Mudgal, however, relented a little because “you (DS Group) have shown your willingness to accept a mistake.” But the DS Group was fined Rs 1 lakh. The money will be used to eradicate child labour in the Capital.The bench congratulated Tiwari “for bringing the advertisement to their notice. we will surely mention the good work you did in our orders.”
