The court upheld the discretion of administrative bodies in selection processes, emphasizing that personnel do not have a fundamental right to claim deputation but a right to fair consideration based on evolving policies.

JUDGMENT

V. Kameswar Rao, J.

1. The present petition has been filed by 44 petitioners, who are serving personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (`ITBP', for short)/respondents, with the following prayers:

"It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that your Lordships may graciously be pleased to issue directions or writ more than one in nature including Certiorari and Mandamus against the Respondent and that:

(i) This Hon'ble Court may graciously be pleased to quash and set aside impugned order I.2101/28/2022 (E- 13229)/Estt-2298 dated 24.02.2023 as unconstitutional and ultra vires the ITBP Act & Rules; and

(ii) This Hon'ble Court may further be pleased to quash and set aside order No. I-21017/28/Afghanistan/2022/Estt-8701-99 dated 27.02.2023 and direct the Respondents to draw a fresh list of empanelled personnel on the basis of Standing Order No. 04/2017 as it stood prior to amendment dated 24.02.2023."

2. It is the case of the petitioners and as contended by Mr. Vivek Sheel, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners that the petitioners are in common aggrieved with administrative actions of the respondents which have caused the petitioners injustice, as they are being placed below their juniors in the selection panel for deputation at Indian Mission in Afghanistan. It is further his case that the impugned actions of the respondents are in defiance of their own standing orders, policies and settled principles of administrative law. He has also submitted that the petitioner No. 1 has been duly authorized to pursue the present petition on behalf of all the other petitioners.

3. He further submits that ITBP is primarily a border guarding force. It is entrusted with the task to provide security cover to Indian Embassy & Consular missions in Afghanistan. For the aforesaid purpose, ITBP prepares a panel of its best serving personnel across the ranks of Constable, Head Constable, Subordinate officers and Officers, for their deployment to the Indian Missions Abroad, (`IMA', for short), Afghanistan. In order to streamline the process of selection of ITBP troops for security of IMA at Afghanistan on deputation basis and deployment with UN Mission etc., ITBP had issued a Standing Order No. 04/2017 (`SO-I', for short) dated June 07, 2017, laying down the eligibility and other terms of selection. The said SO-I, is the standing policy document, which exhaustively lays down the eligibility criteria, process of selection of personnel, their induction and de-induction from the selected panel of personnel.

4. He submits that the respondent No. 2/Director-General, ITBP, has also issued `General Guidelines for Posting/Transfer of ITBP Personnel' in the form of a Standing order No. 02/2020 (`SO-II'), dated October 15, 2020. In terms of SO-II, the ITBP formations are classified as `Soft Areas' (`SA', for short), Hard Areas (`HA', for short) and Extreme Hard Areas (`EHA', for short). As per the aforesaid guidelines, the transfer & posting of ITBP personnel are based on exigencies of service and done by software based system and as such, a force personnel cannot pick and chose as to where he has to be posted