Delhi HC Denies Scientist’s Request for Obligatory Work from Residence Underneath GRAP

The Delhi Excessive Court docket has dismissed a petition filed by a Scientist-E employed with an autonomous telecommunications expertise growth centre beneath the Division of Telecommunications, who had sought permission to do business from home citing well being points arising from extreme air air pollution within the nationwide capital.

The petitioner, Shubham Verma, approached the courtroom claiming that regardless of the Fee for Air High quality Administration prescribing do business from home for a minimum of 50% of workers in places of work throughout Delhi from November 21, 2025, his workplace did not adjust to the directions.

Based on the plea, Mr. Verma developed medical points on November 23, 2025, as a result of prevailing air high quality circumstances and was suggested by a health care provider to “keep away from mud and smoke publicity”. He claimed that regardless of searching for permission to do business from home between November 23 and November 27, 2025, no response was obtained from his employer.

The petitioner sought instructions to permit him to do business from home till the organisation may certify that indoor air high quality was inside permissible limits, and additional requested that the interval be handled as on responsibility even when he was unable to bodily report back to workplace.

Justice Sachin Datta, in an order handed on December 9, stated he was not persuaded by the arguments superior on behalf of Mr. Verma. The courtroom noticed that the Graded Response Motion Plan (GARP) and its attendant pointers are regulatory measures meant to curb polluting actions and empower authorities such because the Fee for Air High quality Administration and the Delhi Air pollution Management Committee to subject instructions.

“Little question, the stated regulatory measures are required to be applied scrupulously. Nonetheless, the identical can’t be construed as conferring rights on central authorities officers or workers towards their employers in derogation of their service circumstances,” Justice Datta noticed.

The courtroom additional famous that the related GRAP guideline dated November 21, 2025, vests discretion with the central authorities relating to the grant of do business from home and doesn’t impose a compulsory obligation.

Terming the petitioner’s declare of an automated entitlement to do business from home as “misplaced”, the courtroom nonetheless noticed that in view of his medical exigencies, he could be at liberty to request his employer for a switch out of Delhi.