Allahabad High Court
Jagdev Singh vs The State Of U.P. And 4 Others on 7 April, 2022
Author: Saurabh Shyam Shamshery
Bench: Saurabh Shyam Shamshery
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 34 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 4894 of 2022 Petitioner :- Jagdev Singh Respondent :- The State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Mohammad Fahad,Mohd. Parvez Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J.
Petitioner is seeking following relief :-
"a) issue, a writ order or direction, in the nature of certiorari, quashing the impugned transfer order dated 31/07/2012, passed by the Respondent no.3, which was communicated and given effect to vide order dated 02/03/2022 by the Respondent no.2, (enclosed as Annexure - 1 & 2) to this writ petition.
b) issue, a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus, directing the Respondents, to permit the petitioner to continue at his present place of posting at District Etawah."
Learned counsel for petitioner has relied upon an order passed by a co-ordinate Bench that long lapse of time between a transfer order and a relieving order, would rendered the transfer order out of context.
I have perused the material available on record.
The petitioner, a Fireman, was transferred on compassionate ground from District - Unnao to District - Auriya on 31.7.2022, however, it was not given effect and thereafter, considering request for transfer on compassionate ground/period of stay at one Station/interim change/in the interest of general public and administrative exigencies, the concerned authority has transferred number of Leading Fireman by impugned order dated 2.3.2022 including the petitioner also.
Undisputedly, transfer is an incident of service. Learned counsel for petitioner does not point out any violation of Statutory provisions in transfer order except that earlier transfer order was not given effect for seven years.
Learned counsel for petitioner has not able to make out a case that impugned transfer order is passed for any extraneous consideration or it being a colourable exercise of power without any administrative exigency.
It is also settled law that Court cannot substitute their own decision in the matter of transfer as well as it is not a case of petitioner that transfer is punative in nature. Transfer is not only an incident but an essential condition of service. It does not affect the conditions of service in any manner. An employee does not have any vested right to be posted or to remain posted at a particular place.
In Punjab and Sind Bank and Others vs. Durgesh Kuwar; 2020 SCC OnLine SC 774, the Supreme Court has held as under :-
"17. We must begin our analysis of the rival submissions by adverting to the settled principle that transfer is an exigency of service. An employee cannot have a choice of postings. Administrative circulars and guidelines are indicators of the manner in which the transfer policy has to be implemented. However, an administrative circular may not in itself confer a vested right which can be enforceable by a writ of mandamus. Unless an order of transfer is established to be malafide or contrary to a statutory provision or has been issued by an authority not competent to order transfer, the Court in exercise of judicial review would not be inclined to interfere. These principles emerge from the judgments which have been relied upon by the appellants in support of their submissions and to which we have already made a reference above. There can be no dispute about the position in law."
In view of above discussion, petitioner has not able to make out any case to interefere with the impugned transfer order and, therefore, while rejecting the prayers made in this writ petition, the respondents' authorities are directed to relieve the petitioner from his existing place of posting within a period of two weeks from today, if not relieve earlier and petitioner is directed to join the place of transfer within a period of one week thereafter.
With the aforesaid directions, the writ petition is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 7.4.2022 Rishabh [Saurabh Shyam Shamshery, J.]