The court emphasized the importance of adhering to the mandatory posting policies and directed the CISF to consider the petitioner's case in line with the existing policies and the likely posting of the petitioner's husband.

JUDGMENT

Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J. - The petitioner, a Sub-Inspector with the respondents CISF and posted at Nasik, has filed this petition seeking transfer to NLC, Barsingsar, Bikaner, Rajasthan where her husband, a Major in the Indian Army, is posted since 30th June, 2019.

2. It is the plea of the petitioner that the petitioner has an elderly mother suffering from 80% disability and a seven year old son and both of whom are staying with her husband at Bikaner and both of whom require the care and attention of the petitioner.

3. It is the case of the petitioner, (i) that she has been in the rank of SubInspector, since 8th December, 2010 and has been transferred to different postings including at Rajkot Airport, Jorhat Airport (Assam), Joshimath and is now at Nasik since 30th June, 2019; (ii) that the petitioner married in February, 2012; the husband of the petitioner, a Major in the Indian Army, has been posted in different places including hard postings such as Uri (Jammu & Kashmir), Tuting (Arunachal Pradesh), Joshimath and is posted at Bikaner since June, 2019; (iii) that the petitioner is the only child of her parents and lost her father about 17 years back; (iv) that the petitioner has been brought up by her mother who has 80% disability and has been suffering from mental retardation and locomotor disability; (v) that the mother of the petitioner lives with the husband of the petitioner in Bikaner; (vi) that the petitioner has a 7 years old son who is also living with the husband of the petitioner in Bikaner and the husband of the petitioner alone is taking care of both, the mother of the petitioner as well as the son; (vii) that the petitioner''s mother as well as son need full time care and attention; (viii) that thus the petitioner requested a posting at the place of posting of her husband i.e. spouse posting, on compassionate grounds; (ix) that the Office Memorandum (OM) dated 8th October, 2018 of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, on the subject of "Exemption from the routine exercise of transfer/rotational transfer", in paragraph 3 provides as under:

"3. With the enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 on April 17, 2017, the following instructions are issued in supersession of the above-mentioned OMs of even number dated June 6, 2014, November 17, 2014 and January 5, 2016 with regard to the eligibility for seeking exemption from routine exercise of transfer/rotational transfer:

(i) A Government employee who is a care-giver of dependent daughter/son/parents/spouse/brother/sister with Specified Disability, as certified by the certifying authority as a Person with Benchmark Disability as defined under Section 2(r) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 may be exempted from the routine exercise of transfer/rotational transfer subject to the administrative constraints.

(ii) The term "Specified Disability" as defined in the Schedule to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, covers (i) Locomotor disability including leprosy cured person, cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy and Acid attack victims (ii) Blindness (iii) Low-vision (iv) Deaf (v) Hard of hearing (vi) Speech and language disabilities (vii) Intellectual disability including specific learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder (viii) Mental illness (ix) Disability caused due to: (a) Neurological conditions such as Multiple sclerosis and Parkinson''s disease (b) Blood disorder Haemophilia, Thalassemia and Sickle cell-disease and (x) Multiple disabilities (more than one of the above specified disabilities) including deaf blindness and any other category of disabilities as may be notified by the Central Government.

(iii) The term ''Specified Disability'' as defined herein is applicable as grounds only for the purpose of seeking exemption from routine transfer/rotational transfer by a Government employee, who is a care