judgment

Altamas Kabir, J. —

The petitioner in the instant special leave petition was one of two petitioners who had filed writ petition No.3622 of 2005 in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Indore Bench, calling in question the legal propriety of an order dated 13.9.2005 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur Bench, in O.A.No.6002/2005. The writ petitioners had approached the Tribunal for quashing of the order of transfer by which they were transferred from Indore to Nagpur. The challenge to the order of transfer was made on the ground that inter-zonal transfer was prohibited in the Department of Central Excise and Customs and hence the impugned transfer order was void and was liable to be quashed.

2.In order to appreciate the case made out by the writ petitioners before the High Court it will be necessary to set out a few facts relating to the case.

3. Appearing for the petitioner Prabir Banerjee, Mr. Mukul Rohtagi, learned Senior Advocate submitted that the petitioner had been appointed as Inspector, Central Excise, in 1982. Subsequently, in 2003 he was promoted to the post of Superintendent under the Bhopal zone which comprised of the Commissionerates of Bhopal, In