Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2023 Supreme(Del) 5135

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
C. Hari Shankar, Manoj Jain, JJ.
Jaibir Singh – Appellant
Versus
Director General Cisf & Ors. – Respondents
W.P.(C) 8579 of 2023, CM APPL. 32605 of 2023, CM APPL.
Decided On : 28-06-2023

Advocates appeared:
Mr. P. Sureshan, Advocate, for the Petitioner.
Mr. Jatin singh, Mr. Keshav Sehgal, Mr. Shivan Gaur and Ms. Ramya Soni, Advocates, for the Respondent with Mr. Sanjay Kumar Inspector, CISF.

The main legal point established in the judgment is that the transfer of a government employee should not be interfered with unless it is shown to be arbitrary, made in violation of prescribed norms, or vitiated by mala fides.

Headnote:
Transfer - Violation of Circular Guidelines - Circular no. 22 of 2017 - Summary of Acts and Sections: Circular no. 22 of 2017, paras 13 and 14 - The court discussed the guidelines for postings/transfer of CISF personnel in various sectors and the interpretation of the NCR and North Sectors as one sector for the purpose of implementation of the guidelines.
Fact of the Case:

The petitioner, a CISF member, was transferred to the North Zone Airport Unit, Dehradun, from New Delhi, and challenged the transfer as a violation of circular guidelines.
Finding of the Court:

The court found that the transfer did not violate the circular guidelines as the NCR and North Sectors were treated as one sector for the purpose of implementation of the guidelines.
Issues: Violation of circular guidelines, legitimate expectation of not being posted outside the home sector in the last tenure of posting.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that the transfer did not violate the circular guidelines and rejected the petitioner's claim based on legitimate expectation.
Final Decision: The writ petition was dismissed by the court.

JUDGMENT (Oral)

C.Hari Shankar, J. Mr. Keshav Sehgal submits, at the outset, that his presence has not been recorded for the respondent on the last date of hearing. It is clarified that Mr. Keshav Sehgal was present.

2. The petitioner was appointed as a Force member in the CISF in 1987. He has provided, in the writ petition, the details of the postings that he has suffered over time from 23 June 1987 till 1 April 2017 thus:

From Date	Unit Name	Posting Category	Sector Name
23-06-1987	RTC BARWAHA	Basic Training Period	TRG HQrs NISA
30-03-1988	PPT PARADEEP	Normal	East
21-07-1993	DSP DURGAPUR	Normal	North East
01-07-1996	2ND RB DELHI	Normal	North
01-07-1997	FHQ CISF state where served not updated	Normal	Deputation
01-03-1999	DELHI POLICE state where served not updated	Normal	Deputation
14-01-2003	SDSC SRIHARIKOTA	Normal	South
01-05-2006	VSSC THUMBA	Normal	South
10-05-2009	CHANDIGARH AIRPORT	Normal	Airport-I New Delhi
07-05-2013	CGBS NEW DELHI	Normal	Airport-I New Delhi
01-04-2017	IGI AIR PORT	Normal	Airport-I New Delhi

3. The petitioner is aggrieved by order dated 17 May 2023, whereby the petitioner has been transferred to the North Zone Airport Unit, Dehradun, from New Delhi.

4. Mr. Sureshan, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner, initially, reiterated the stand taken in the petition, to the effect that the transfer was in violation of circular dated 25 September 2017, which contains the guidelines of postings/transfer of CISF personnel in various sectors of the CISF. The stand taken in the writ petition is that the writ petition relies on para 12 of the aforenoted circular, which normally advises against transferring of a person outside the home sector in the last tenure of the person's posting.

5. Mr. Sureshan submits that the petitioner was, till the issuance of the impugned order, posted at CISF Unit IGI Airport and that, by transferring the petitioner to Dehradun, the aforenoted guidelines have been violated.

6. Prima facie, this contention cannot be accepted in view of paras 13 and 14 of the guidelines which read thus:

13. For the purpose of this policy there shall be following Sectors.

i) North Sector-Comprising of J&K, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand & UP excluding the districts under Eastern UP as mentioned under Eastern Sector.

ii) NCR Sector-Comprising of units under NCR Zone, SSG, GBS, DMRC& other Units as notified under NCR Sector from time to time.

iii) Eastern Sector-Comprising of Bihar, Jharkhand and Eastern UP (districts of Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Sonbhadra, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Kushi Nagar, Maharaj Ganj, Ambedkar Nagar, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Amethi,Barabanki, Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda, Shravasti, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Siddharth Nagar, Azamgarh, Balia, Mau, Allahabad, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh).

iv) South Eastern Sector-Comprising of West Bengal, Orissa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Sikkim.

v) North Eastern Sector-Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura.

vi) Central Sector-Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

vii) Western Sector-Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Daman & Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli.

viii) Southern Sector-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep.

However, the area under Sectors can be changed by the DG/CISF at any time depending upon administrative requirement and operational exigencies.

14. For the purpose of this policy "Home Sector" means the sector under which the Home address of personnel declared at the time of appointment, falls. All other sectors shall be treated as OHS. However the proposed NCR & North Sector shall be treated one sector for the purpose of this policy. The personnel posted in North and NCR sectors are liable to be transferred and rotated between North Sector and NCR Sector any time, which shall not be treated as Inter Sector Transfer (1ST)."

(Emphasis supplied)

7. A conjoint reading of paras 13 and 14 of the aforenoted circular no. 22 of 2017 reveal that, though t