The main legal point established is that administrative decisions, such as transfer orders, must be properly adjudicated and should demonstrate the application of mind. Failure to do so may result in the setting aside of the decision and restoration of the case for reconsideration.

1. With the consent and at the request of learned counsel for the parties, the matter is taken up for final disposal at this stage itself.

This writ petition is directed against the order dated 21.03.2018, as passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, W.P.No.13064/2018 Bengaluru Bench ('the Tribunal') in Original Application (OA) No.170/00167/2018.

The petitioner herein had preferred the OA aforesaid while questioning the order of her transfer dated 07.03.2018.

The relevant background aspects of the matter are that the petitioner was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of Hassan District by an order dated 12.07.2017. She was sought to be transferred under Notification No.DPAR/31/SAS/ 2018 dated 22.01.2018. This Notification dated 22.01.2018 proposing to transfer the petitioner as also some other Deputy Commissioners to different places was, however, ordered to be kept on hold by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, under his letter dated 23.01.2018. Later on, the Election Commission of India, under its Communication dated 05.02.2018, observed that the transfer of the Deputy Commissioners and District Election Officers during the process of revision of electoral rolls would adversely affect the electoral process and hence, it was directed that the transfer of such Deputy Commissioners and District Election Officers (including the petitioner) be withdrawn immediately.

W.P.No.13064/2018 Thereafter, the State Government kept in abeyance the said transfer order dated 22.01.2018 by its order dated 16.02.2018.

However, the petitioner had challenged the aforesaid transfer order dated 22.01.2018 before the Tribunal by way of an OA bearing No.170/00103/2018. During the pendency of the said OA, the order of transfer of the petitioner was withdrawn on 05.03.2018 and hence, the OA was dismissed as infructuous on 06.03.2018.

Thereafter, the impugned order dated 07.03.2018 was issued by the respondents, transferring the petitioner from the post of Deputy Commissioner, Hassan to the post of Commissioner, Department of Employment and Training, Bengaluru. The petitioner preferred another OA questioning the aforesaid transfer order dated 07.03.2018. This OA bearing No.170/00167/2018 has been decided by the Tribunal by way of the impugned order dated 21.03.2018. The entire of the order impugned, on its contents, reads as under:

"Surely some oracle has been with me. The gods have chosen me to reveal their plan To warn and unjust judge of destiny:

I, slumbering, heard and saw; awake I know, W.P.No.13064/2018 Christ's coming death, and Pilate's life of woe. I do not weep for Pilate-who could prove Regret for him whose cold and crushing sway No prayer can soften, no appeal can move;

Charlotte Bronte.

Adjudication is always a bed of thorns and the great poetess Charlotte Bronte while epitomizing the woe of Pontius Pilate's wife when he started to judge Jesus has expressed his anguish. Such dilemma we also face now.

2. A young officer challenges her transfer. She raises many grounds in support of her claim. Her employer raises many objections against the same. We had the honour and benefit of hearing the great Senior Lawyer Shri Subramanya Jois on the subject. We also had the benefit of hearing brilliant Additional Advocate General Shri A.S. Ponnanna on the subject. We also very carefully gone through the detailed written argument notes submitted by Shri Subramanya Jois and Shri Mahanthesh. We had also gone through the lament of the 3rd respondent represented by Shri Joshi who had portrayed the grievance of that young man finding himself nowhere as the post he had occupied has been occupied by someone else and he has nowhere to go.

3. We realize that it is really a bed of thorns to adjudicate this matter. However we had decided to adjudicate in the larger interest of all including the applicant and others equally concerned. We note with some regret that apparently the transfer orders may have been passed in some hurry. The order lacks elements of pr