JUDGMENT :

Ranjan Sharma, J.

Notice. Mr. Rajan Kahol, learned Additional Advocate General, appears and waives service of notice on behalf of respondents No. 1 and 2/State.

2. With the consent of the parties, the instant writ petition is taken up for disposal at this stage, in view of the orders, intended to be passed herein.

3. The petitioner has filed the writ petition with the following prayers:-

“(i) That in view of the submissions made in the writ petition, the writ petition may kindly be allowed and the impugned transfer order dated 20.11.2023 (Annexure P-1) and relieving order dated 6.12.2023 may kindly be quashed and set aside qua the petitioner, in the interest of justice and fair play.

(ii) That the notification dated 27.10.2023 contained in Annexure P-4 may kindly be quashed and set aside”.

4. The case of the petitioner is that he was appointed as Lecturer (School Cadre) in Political Science in May, 2000 and he served at GSSS Kiara (Narkanda), District Shimla, then in GSSS Kuthera, District Bilaspur, then in GSSS Hatwar and was posted in GSSS Sahol in July, 2019. In August, 2022, petitioner was posted at the present station i.e. GSSS Ghumarwin, District Bilaspur. Now, grievance of the petitioner is that as per Office Order dated 20.11.2023 (Annexure P-1), the petitioner has been transferred from GSSS Ghumarwin, District Bilaspur to GSSS Timbi, District Sirmaur, with TTA/Joining Time, by clubbing the stay of the petitioner within a radius of 30 KM since July, 2019.

5. Petitioner has assailed Office Order dated 20.11.2023 (Annexure P-1), on the grounds, that (i) petitioner is due for retirement in less than five years and as per Clause 12.1 of the existing norms and principles governing the transfer of State Government Employees, such incumbents who have less than five years for superannuation shall not be posted in remote/hard/ difficult/tribal areas and once the transferred station i.e. GSSS Timbi, District Sirmaur is hard area, therefore, the petitioner could not have been sent to the said station; (ii) transfer is neither in public interest nor in administrative exigency in view of averments in Para 10 (G & H); and (iii) transfer by clubbing the previous stay as per the Office Memorandum dated 27.10.2023 (Annexure P-4) was contrary to the mandate of ‘transfer’ in the statutory Supplementary Rule and thus the Office Memorandum could not have been invoked /applied contrary to Rules to the disadvantage of the petitioner.

6. In the above background, petitioner is stated to have made representation on 22.11.2023 (Annexure P-3) to Respondent No. 2 – Director of Higher Education, Shimla pointing out above aspects including the adversarial family conditions, due to which petitioner had requested for considering his case for posting at one of the vacant stations as indicated in the representation.

7. Per contra, Mr. Rajan Kahol, learned Additional Advocate General has raised three contentions. Firstly, petitioner has never served in hard area and therefore, he is required to be posted anywhere including hard area;. Secondly, mere existence of vacancy will not confer right to the petitioner and transfer has been made to fill up the vacancy at GSSS Timbi, District Sirmaur.

8. Be that as it may, this Court is of the view that once the State Government has notified the norms and principles governing transfers of its employees on 10.07.2013 and Clause 12.1 of the Transfer Policy mandates the respondents, not to transfer an employee to the tribal/hard/difficult/remote areas, who has less then five years of superannuation, then, in the present case, transfer of the petitioner on the face of it, is not in terms of the spirit of the policy. The stand taken by the learned State Counsel that the petitioner is required to be posted in the tribal/hard/difficult/remote area, as he has never served in any of these areas is without any force, for the reason that once Clause 12.1 carves out an exception, by exempting an employee who has less than five