IN THE HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
P. Sam Koshy, J.
Dr. I. P. Singh S/o Shri Dadan Singh - Petitioner
Versus
State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary Livestock Development Department, Mantralaya, New Raipur Chhattisgarh - Respondent
WPS No. 1980 of 2022
Decided On : 29-03-2022
Constitution of India,1950 - Competency of the authority - Transfer being contrary to the service conditions - Petitioner to make representation within two weeks to the respondents and for next three weeks the order of transfer was not to be given effect. Pursuant to order of this Court in aforesaid writ petition petitioner first gave an intimation to respondents in respect of interim order granted by Court made a representation in terms of order of this Court - Respondents have passed the order of relieving which was communicated to petitioner fore noon session. According to petitioner, this is an antidated document - Pursuant to the non-compliance of order - petitioner has already filed a Contempt Petition before this Court i.e. Contempt Case Notices have already been issued to respondents in said contempt petition - Petitioner received relieving order yet present writ petition has been filed after more than two months - Held, Court at this juncture in present writ petition to be considered - Order of transfer particularly when the service of the petitioner is a transferable service can be interfered only to the limited extent which is permitted - Hon’ble Supreme Court in a series of judgment to recent past i.e. in event of order of transfer being contrary to service conditions and also adverse to the service conditions - Case neither is it case of the petitioner that services of the petitioner is not transferable nor is the case of the petitioner that by way of the transfer his service conditions are going to be adversely affected in any manner - petitioner further referred to certain representation made by the petitioner to Director relieving order has been issued while the petitioner was on leave - Ground also does not find force on the submission made by petitioner for reason that an administrative decision taken by respondents particularly in respect of transfer and posting of the employee can be taken even in course of employee being on leave - Employer need not wait till the employee who is on leave reports back on duty for taking administrative decision particularly for deciding the place and posting and transfer of the officers and employees under the respondents - Court does not find any case made out by petitioner - writ petition dismissed.
ORDER :
The instant writ petition has been filed assailing the relieving order dated 09.12.2021 pursuant to the order of transfer dated 09.11.2021.
2. The present petition is the second round of litigation. The earlier round of litigation was WPS No. 6735 of 2021, whereby the petitioner substantively had challenged the order of transfer dated 09.11.2021 transferring the petitioner from Raipur to Jagdalpur. The said writ petition was disposed of with a liberty to the petitioner to make representation within two weeks to the respondents and for the next three weeks the order of transfer was not to be given effect. Pursuant to the order of this Court in the aforesaid writ petition No. 6735 of 2021 decided on 07.12.2021, the petitioner first gave an intimation to the respondents in respect of the interim order granted by this Court on 15.12.2021. Subsequently, he made a representation in terms of the order of this Court dated 07.12.2021 on 17.12.2021. Meanwhile, the respondents have passed the order of relieving on 09.12.2021 which was communicated to the petitioner on 20.12.2021 at fore noon session. According to the petitioner, this is an antidated document. Pursuant to the non-compliance of the order, the petitioner has already filed a Contempt Petition before this Court i.e. Contempt Case No. 78 of 2022. Notices have already been issued to the respondents in the said contempt petition. The petitioner received the relieving order on 20.01.2022, yet the present writ petition has been filed after more than two months i.e. on 22.03.2022.
3. On a query being put to the learned counsel for the petitioner, he was not in a position to inform to the Court as to how long the petitioner has been posted at Raipur but he accepts that it is more than 2-3 years in any case. According to the petitioner once when the impugned order dated 07.12.2021 was in operation, the respondents could not have issued the relieving order and should have laid their hands off, till the representation of the petitioner is decided. It is the further contention of the petitioner that the representation also till date has not been decided and therefore, the order of the relieving should be stayed at least till the representation is decided. The other contention of the petitioner is that the impugned order has been passed only to accommodate the respondent No.5. According to the petitioner, the respondent No. 5 has been accommodated at Raipur at his own request. That in order to accommodate the respondent No. 5, the petitioner has been transferred from Raipur to the place where the respondent No. 5 has come. Petitioner also has questioned the competency of the authority who has issued the relieving order and submits that the respondent No. 4 also is a person who already stands transferred and is also relieved and therefore, he could not have discharged his duties in the course of issuance of the relieving order.
4. So far as transfer is concerned, it is by now well settled by a catena of decisions by the Hon’ble Supreme Court as also by the High Court that untill and unless the order of transfer is contrary to rules or is in any manner adversely affecting the service condition of the employee or an officer as a matter of routine. The Courts are not permitted to interfere with the administrative decisions of the respondents unless they are issued with malafides or are arbitrary and contrary to statutory provisions. As regards accommodation of respondent No.5 being the cause for the transfer of the petitioner, this Court does not find any merits on the said submission as the Hon’ble Supreme Court itself has held that in the event of an employee being transferred the only remedy that he has is to approach the respondent/employer by way of a representation. That in the course of allowing a request for transfer of an employee or an officer the consequence change at the place of posting of the employee/officer who has made the request that cannot be held to be in any manner
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