Newly recruited employees cannot be assigned to perform duties of a promotional post immediately upon entry into service.

ORDER :

1. The present petition has been filed aggrieved of the order impugned dated 06.04.2025 (Annexure-2) whereby the petitioners have been granted posting places after being recruited as Junior Accountant in the Month of January 2025.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that firstly, the order impugned is a transfer order and the petitioners have been sought to be transferred only after a period of three months of their posting at Treasury, Bikaner. Secondly, the petitioners have been sought to be transferred on the post of Assistant Accounts Officer Gr.II. which is a promotional post of Junior Accountant whereas they had been selected as Junior Accountant only.

3. Thirdly, a newly recruited Junior Accountant cannot be supposed to discharge the functions of a promotional post.

4. Per contra learned AAG appearing for the respondent- Department submits that the order impugned is not a transfer order but is an order providing posting place to all the petitioners. He submits that in fact after being offered appointment in the Month of January 2025, at the first instance, all the incumbents were directed to join at the Treasuries. So far as the present petitioners are concerned, they were directed to join at Treasury, Bikaner. Subsequently, posting places have been granted to the petitioners as per the vacancies existing at different offices/Districts. Therefore, the argument of counsel for the petitioners that the petitioners have been transferred only within a period of three months, is fallacious.

5. Learned AAG further submits that in fact the functions of a Junior Accountant and AAO Gr.II are equivalent and therefore, in administrative exigency, a Junior Accountant can be posted as AAO Gr.II as per the vacancies.

6. Heard the counsels and perused the record.

7. A bare perusal of note Nos.1 & 2 as appended to order dated 06.04.2025 (Annexure-2) reveals that all the incumbents have been directed to be permitted to join on the lowest post as available in the said office and whosoever is the person already working in the said office, has been directed to be given the charge of the senior post. Meaning thereby, it is not in every case that the incumbents have been posted on the post of AAO Gr.II. They have been posted on the lowest post as available in the concerned office, which definitely, is the post of Junior Accountant.

8. So far as the first argument of counsel for the petitioner to the effect that the petitioners have been transferred within a period of two months is concerned, this Court is of the clear opinion that the order impugned cannot be termed to be a transfer order. The same clearly reflects that vide the said order, the newly recruited Junior Accountants have been granted posting on vacant posts.

9. It is clear on record that the petitioners/new incumbents were at the first instance directed to join at Treasury, Bikaner but that cannot mean that they can, as a matter of right, claim to be posted at the same place and cannot be posted at any other place. 10. So far as the Junior Accountants being posted as AAO Gr.II is concerned, it is an admitted position that AAO Gr.II is a promotional post of Junior Accountant. Therefore, a newly recruited Junior Accountant cannot be asked/directed to discharge the functions of a promotional post at the very entrance of him in Government Service. Therefore, the orders whereby a Jr. Accountant has been transferred on the post of AAO Gr.II, does deserve interference.

11. In view of the above facts and observations, the present writ petition is disposed of with the following observations and directions:

i) Any of the petitioners who has been posted at a place where no vacancy of Junior Accountant exists, the respondent department would be under an obligation to modify the order and grant him posting at a place where a vacancy of Junior Accountant exists.

ii) So far as the posting to the places where a post of Junior Accountant do exist, the same does not deserve interference in