VALMIKI J. MEHTA, J.

1. By this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks the relief of quashing of transfer order dated 7.3.2017 issued by the respondent no. 2/Guru Harkrishan Public School transferring the petitioner from Guru Harkrishan Public School, Kalkaji to Guru Harkrishan Public School, Tilak Nagar.

2. The legal propositions with respect to whether an employee of a private unaided school in Delhi can be transferred to another school in Delhi, are well settled as under :

(i) Each school branch functioning as a school under the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973 is a separate entity than another school, and which may in fact be a branch even under the same management.

(ii) Transfer of an employee from one school branch to another school or to another branch of the school under the same management is permissible provided two conditions are satisfied. The first condition is that a common seniority list must be maintained of all the schools under the same management so that the seniority of the employee who is transferred from one school to another school is not affected. The second condition is that in the employment terms and conditions of an employee it has been specified that the employee can be transferred from one school to another school.

(iii) Since the employee of a school is an employee of the school, and not the society which runs the school, hence, the employee is to be transferred by the school and not the society, but, a relieving order issued by a school can be read as a transfer order of/by the school.

3. So far as the aforesaid three aspects are concerned, the same were subject matter of the decision by this Court in the case of Varinder Kaur vs. School Management of GHPS & Ors., W.P. (C) No. 3061/2014 decided on 7.5.2015. The respondent in the case of Varinder Kaur’s (supra) is the same respondent as the respondent in the present case being a school branch of Guru Harkrishan Public School. The relevant paras of the judgment in the case of Varinder Kaur (supra) are paras 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 and the same read as under :-

2. So far as the aspect that schools are separate legal entities and employee of one school cannot be transferred to another school is concerned, this aspect has been considered and dealt with by this Court in the judgment in the case of Satbir Singh and Anr. Vs. Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee & Anr. in W.P.(C) No. 8060/2007 decided on 1.5.2013, and in which judgment it is held that each school has a separate legal entity and employee of one school cannot be transferred to another school, however, the ratio of the judgment in the case of Satbir Singh & Anr. (supra) was by noting the specific position that no common seniority list was maintained by different schools and hence an employee of one school cannot be transferred to another school because employee by the transfer can be prejudiced because as a result of the transfer such employee may be placed at a lower position in seniority in the transferred school than the position in which the person was working in the school from where the employee was transferred.

3. The issue with respect to transfer of an employee from one school to another which was the subject matter of the decision in the Satbir Singh & Anr. (supra), came up before the Division Bench of this Court in LPA No. 508/2013 in the case of Hamdard Education Society & Anr. Vs. Abdul Rehman & Anr. decided on 16.5.2014 and the ratio of the judgment in the case of Satbir Singh & Anr. (supra) has been approved by the Division Bench of this Court stating that an employee of one school cannot be transferred to another school, and once again noting that this is so when no common seniority list of different schools is maintained. The relevant observations of the Division Bench are contained in para 24 of the judgment and this para reads as under:

“24. We had asked learned counsel for the society and the school that if employees