Transfer stipulations in employment determine seniority rights and must be respected in disputes regarding promotions.

JUDGMENT :

N. UNNI KRISHNAN NAIR, J.

Heard Mr. S. Hoque, learned counsel for the petitioner in WP(C).No.6213/2024 and Mr. K. Bhuyan, learned counsel for the petitioner in WP(C)/4903/2024 and respondent no.5 in WP(C)/6213/ 2024. Also heard Mr. U. Sharma, learned Standing Counsel, Secondary Education Department, appearing for the State Respondents in the above noted 2(two) writ petitions, and Mr. D.K. Roy, learned counsel appearing for respondent no.6 in WP(C)/ 6213/2024.

2. The petitioners in the above noted 2(two) writ petitions have staked a claim for holding of the charge of the post of Principal of Bhawanipur Higher Secondary School. The petitioners in both the above noted writ petitions have projected that they having possessed the requisite eligibility criteria for promotion to the post of Principal of a provincialised Higher Secondary School, on regular basis, considering their respective seniority, they are eligible to hold the post of Principal of the school in question on in-charge basis.

3. The facts in brief, requisite for adjudication of the issue arising in the above 2(two) writ petitions is noticed as under;

WP(C).No. 6213/2024

The petitioner, herein, Sanjoy Kumar Talukdar has projected that he was appointed as an Assistant Teacher at Bhawanipur Higher Secondary School vide an order dated 06.12.1999 and had joined his services in the said school w.e.f. 17.12.1999. The petitioner projects that since the date of his initial appointment, he was authorized the graduate scale of pay. It is projected in the writ petition that the respondent no.5 Parbananda Das, a Hindi Teacher was transferred to the school of the petitioner vide an order dated 31.05.2001 and in the said order of transfer, a stipulation was incorporated to the effect that the transfer being so effected on his own request, he would not be entitled to claim seniority over the other existing Assistant Teachers in the said school. The writ petitioner further projects that the incumbent in the post of Principal of the said school on the eve of his retirement had prepared a seniority list of the Assistant Teachers of the said school and therein had placed the petitioner below the respondent no.5, although the respondent no.5 was not entitled to be placed above the petitioner in the said seniority list in view of the condition existing in his order of transfer. The petitioner further projects that the Director of Secondary Education, Assam, vide an order dated 02.07.2024, had allowed the Jurisdictional Inspector General of Schools to hold the charge of the Principal of the school in question along with the financial power. The Inspector of Schools, on assuming the charge of the post of Principal of the school in question, is contended to have issued an order dated 06.07.2024 allowing the respondent no.6, herein Ashok Das, a Junior Assistant Teacher of the school to look after the academic side until further orders. Being aggrieved, the respondent no.5 had instituted the present writ petition.

WP(C).No.4903/2024

The petitioner herein, Parbananda Das, has projected that he was initially appointed as a Junior Hindi Teacher at Uttar Barpeta High School on 04.08.1985. Thereafter, his services were regularized w.e.f. 11.08.1995 vide issuance of an order dated 02.03.2001. The petitioner further projects that he was vide an order dated