Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

15. I have gone through the records of the case thoroughly and heard the arguments carefully. It has been held in several judgments by the Apex court that transferring an employee and Item No.31 (Court No.6) OA No.3745 of 2022 reassigning duties and responsibilities at the same place of posting or at a new location is the prerogative of the competent authorities.

16. Transfers, deployments, redeployment or placement of organizational human resources are essential components of Human Resources Management Strategies of any organization, be it in private sector or in the Government or Public sector. These strategies are s aimed at realizing the organizational goals for furtherance of mission objectives of the organization. For a government department or autonomous organization or Public Sector Undertaking, Public Interest in the form of discharging the assigned responsibilities to these entities by the Constitution, statutory provisions subordinate legislation or delegated competencies is the charter for mission objectives.

17. Deployment or transfer is also the process of providing sub- entities and subordinate offices with the required human resources and support they need to be successful in their roles. This is akin to allocation of organizational resources to achieve organizational goals. Modern governments and organizations begin the process prior to adopting transfers as a redeployment tool by assessing the organization's current and future human Item No.31 (Court No.6) OA No.3745 of 2022 resources needs. Following these assessments, the competent authority makes decisions how best to deploy the human resources to meet the identified needs. These include the type of human resources required, the number of human resources required, the location of the human resources, and the timing of the deployment. In Government, generally this task is assigned to an Administrative/Establishment/ Placement/Transfer Committee.

18. Effective utilization of service of an employee is in the very core of administrative exigency. It is the prerogative of the employer to transfer his employee at any point of time and to any work station based on administrative exigencies. Deployment of staff in the form of transfers enables realignment of human resources to new work assignments or job responsibilities to meet organizational needs or to provide opportunities to the employees gain skills and experience. Such activities are aimed at supporting employee's engagement, employee motivation and increased productivity and leadership development across all level of employees within the organization.

"16. In our opinion, the High Court has taken a totally impractical view of the matter. If the view of the High Court is to prevail, great difficulties will be created for the State administration since it will not be able to transfer/deploy its police force from one place where there may be relative peace to another district or region/range in the State where there may be disturbed law and order situation and hence requirement of more police. Courts should not, in our opinion, interfere with purely administrative matters except where absolutely necessary on account of violation of any fundamental or other legal right of the citizen. After all, the State administration cannot function with its hands tied by Item No.31 (Court No.6) OA No.3745 of 2022 judiciary behind its back. As Justice Holmes of the US Supreme Court pointed out, there must be some free-play of the joints provided to the executive authorities.