Human Right Violation In TCS - The BRSR -ESG Report & Defective CRISIL ESG Rating of Tata Consultancy Services.

 Human Right Violation Research - HR Lab   

* Birendra K Jha                                                                                                                                                                              Certified Social Auditor; Practitioner Social Impact Assessment Audit; Practitioner BRSR (SEBI ) Audit- ESG Audit. EMail: birendrajha03@yahoo.com

As per SEBI market capitalization the TCS holds second rank ( March 2023 ). This company is expected to be strong in ESG compliance. But situation is poor. The CRISIL has given "Leadership Category" Rating in 2022 to the TCS. At that period of time mass Human Right violation is reported. This shows CRISIL Ratings are very poor and unreliable. The CRISIL Auditors only looked the TCS internal generated glossy papers and made an excellent opinion about it. The Auditors failed in moving to the field and watch the real situation of Human Right violation. I am reporting here two cases one of 2022 and other of 2025.  

Case of 2022

I had been advocating for replacement of CRISIL defective rating method of ESG before SEBI for a long time. One major point was mandatory implementation  of Third Party Independent Assessment Audit of BRSR - ESG Core. Second, I had advocated for  publishing the Independent Audit Assessment Report on the web site, so that Rating Agency could not manipulate the data. Third what I had advocated the CRISIL Rating be based completely on the Independent Audit Assessment Report and not on the documents generated by the client company. Now under the SEBI law, mandatory Third Party Audit Assessment - Assurance is compulsory for the BRSR Core for Principle 5 and others. 

This is demonstrated with a case from 2022 from TCS. It demonstrates also that why field Audit  Assessment-Assurance is necessary for the BRSR reporting.  As per SEBI market capitalization the TCS holds second rank ( March 2023 ). This company is expected to be strong in ESG compliance. 

But situation is poor. Just check this rating given by the CRISIL. The CRISIL has reported TCS in 2022 under "Leadership Category". That is very strong in compliance. The ESG Score of CRISIL 2022 for TCS   is "Leadership Rating"  

Environment Rating   78 ( 71-100 Leadership Category )

Social Rating              73  ( Leadership Category )

Governance Rating    72  ( Leadership Category )

Overall                         75  ( Leadership Category )

The ESG Social Rating of TCS demonstrated above is 73 ( 71-100 Leadership Category ). But instead of 73 this is under "Non-Compliance". As impact of Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam and other employees are not reported here ( this case is reported below ). All employees have suffered acute  Human Right Violation. Thus  CRISIL ESG Rating is poor, defective and bogus. 

The CRISIL has reported this Rating based on internal reports of TCS. There is no Third Party Audit Assessment on BRSR-ESG Core. If any that is poor.  If strong Third Party Audit Assessment on Human Right is not conducted then various companies shall file similar bogus reports.    

Companies bound to report under BRSR - ESG Core,  are expected to maintain high professional practice. In Human Right Audit, any one negative sample is sufficient to demonstrate the in-house culture and practice on Human Right. In TCS, Human Right violation  is seen frequently on Illegal Termination. 

Assessment Auditors have to smell this practice and verify this through field visit. The published Board Report or other reports are telling big-words  and untrusted facts. They are just eye wash. It has big words on Human Right Policy at one side, but engaged in Human Right violation at the other side. The Sample Test of Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam proves this. The entire "Social Pillar of ESG" is falling under the  Non Compliance Category  in 2022.    

Sample Test Case of Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam: 

Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam was IT Employee in Chennai. He joined  as an ‘Assistant System Engineer’, later was subsequently promoted as an ‘IT Analyst’ and lastly was promoted to the position of a ‘Test Manager’. His main duties and responsibilities are maintaining the  IT infrastructure, installing any updates in the business machines, troubleshooting problems, installing software updates and assisting  company’s clients on a daily basis.  He was merely undertaking duties and responsibilities that are technical and clerical in nature.

Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam was retrenched in an illegalize way with 25000 other people solely for commercial purposes. They were replaced with  55,000 new employees. All other employees lost hope Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam for Human Right justice raised voice against  the illegal termination from 2016 to July 2022. For Seven Years he was fighting with the TCS  for Human Right Protection on Labour Law justice. Ultimately his service was reinstated in July 2022 on ground of "Illegal Retrenchment", when right intervention arrived. This is very clearly noted that the case of Illegal Termination is Human Right Violation. When the CRISIL Rating was going on then  Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam and other unknown employees around 25000 were fighting with the system. This was duty of CRISIL to report this major Human Right Violation honestly. Whatever reported is completely defective and poor report. The Social Pillar of ESG is under Non-Compliance category. This is not under Leadership Category. 

"Illegal retrenchment" is the unlawful termination of an employee, which violates the basic human right to livelihood and security of employment by disregarding legal procedures like notice periods, fair inquiry, and compensation, as established in applicable law then  the, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Such violations are often characterized by arbitrary dismissal, failure to pay dues, lack of prior notice, discriminatory grounds, or failure to follow principles of natural justice. 

Hon'ble Supreme Court has often held that reinstatement with full back wages should be the primary remedy in cases of wrongful dismissal, particularly where the termination is found to be illegal or in violation of principles of natural justice. In Landmark judgment of Hindustan Tin Works Pvt. Ltd. v. The Employees of Hindustan Tin Works Pvt. Ltd. (1979) this was ruled the importance of putting the employee back in the position they would have been, had the unlawful termination not occurred. 

In FY 2024-2025 again The CRISIL has reported TCS under Strong Leadership Category as shown below. This is same repeat of 2022.  The CRISIL Rating is useless until reporting is based on the Third Party Audit Assessment of BRSR - ESG Core. 

                                     

                              

Case of 2025: 

Before 2022 the automation and Artificial Intelligence started killing jobs in TCS. The TCS adopted “reskilling and redeployment” of employees to replace the AI impact.  The Automation and AI where needed to give more work-life balance, for decent HR practices is used as  weapon to slash jobs. 

What is observed in the TCS  large scale  transformation, cost-cutting masquerading as future-readiness at the cost of Human Right.  Documents filed at the Additional Labour Commissioner office Bangalore speaks many odd things about the TCS. 

The document at the Additional Labour Commissioner speaks about the TCS culture of forced resignations of employees.  Many TCS employees have alleged that they are being coerced to resign, with threats of blacklisting and withholding of payments if they resist. This is in public document.   

The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) internally announced its plans to let go of over 12,000 employees, which is roughly 2% of its global workforce.  The TCS offered three months' pay as an incentive to resign. But if someone refuses, they’re told they’ll be terminated without compensation, and won’t receive a relieving letter. This is available in public document.  

This is clearly threat strategy and violation of Human Right. People are scared into quitting.  On July 27 2025, the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) stepped into action. On July 29 2025,  employees  met with the Additional Labour Commissioner, filing an official industrial dispute against the TCS. They accused the company of illegal mass retrenchment and of violating both the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and employment conditions mandated by the Karnataka government.

 

The document alleges, illegal termination, without the  compliance with the law. TCS is forcing resignations, bypassing the mandatory government approval needed under the Act for companies with over 100 employees. This is a deliberate and unlawful tactic to avoid scrutiny. This has been alleged in the document before the Labour Commissioner.  

Question is,  this culture of Human Right Violation why is not reported?  The 2025 impact is not new.  This is coming since 2022, when Thirumalai Selvan Shanmugam along with 25000 other employees lost the job on Illegal Termination at the TCS.