JUDGMENT :

1. With the consent of the parties, the matter has been taken up through video conferencing. They have no complaint whatsoever regarding audio and/or video quality.

2. The instant intra-court appeal preferred under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent is directed against the order/judgment dated 21.09.2020 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(S) No. 5649 of 2019, whereby and whereunder, the reasoned order dated 11.10.2019 and the order of transfer dated 26.07.2019, by which the writ petitioner has been transferred from Referral Hospital, Raj Dhanwar, Giridih to Primary Health Centre, Gidhaur, Chatra, has been quashed and set aside.

3. The brief facts of the lis as per the pleading which are required to be enumerated, read as hereunder:

As per the pleading, the case of the writ petitioner is that he was appointed as Medical Officer on 01.04.2012 by the State Government after being found to be successful in the combined competitive examination conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission. The writ petitioner was posted as Medical Officer at Referral Hospital, Raj Dhanwar, where he assumed charge on 01.04.2012 and continued till 17.07.2016. The writ petitioner was transferred to RINPAS, Ranchi vide notification dated 29.06.2016 and further, was again transferred to Referral Hospital, Raj Dhanwar vide notification dated 21.06.2017 on request. However, vide order dated 26.07.2019, the writ petitioner was transferred to Primary Health Centre, Giridih, Chatra.

The writ petitioner, being aggrieved with the same, preferred a writ petition being W.P.(S) No.3955 of 2019 which was disposed of vide order dated 17.08.2019. However, the co-ordinate learned Single Judge has not interfered with the order of transfer considering it to be a chain transfer but accorded liberty to file representation before the competent authority who in turn was directed to take decision within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order.

The writ petitioner, in terms of the aforesaid liberty, submitted a representation before the respondent concerned. The aforesaid representation was disposed of by passing an order on 11.10.2019 annexed as Annexure-5.

The writ petitioner questioned the aforesaid order by filing writ petition being W.P.(S) No.5649 of 2019 on the ground that the order of transfer, which has been passed transferring the writ petitioner from Referral Hospital, Raj Dhanwar, Giridih to the Primary Health Centre, Gidhaur, Chatra, is punitive in nature as would appear from the reasoned order dated 11.10.2019.

The writ petitioner had taken the ground before the learned Single Judge that the order if is simplicitor or routine, the same is least to be interfered with by the High Court sitting under Article 226 of the Constitution of India but if the order of transfer is punitive in nature and has been issued without providing an opportunity of hearing, the same requires interference by the Writ Court.

The respondent-appellant had appeared before the writ Court and placed the case by making submission that the order of transfer being the routine transfer, as such, the same does not require any interference. So far as the contention of the writ petitioner about showing the order of transfer punitive in nature, submission has been made before the writ court that the same cannot be said to be punitive in nature rather the same has been passed disclosing the reason on the basis of the order passed by this Court in W.P.(S) No.3955 of 2019. But, the fact remains that the order of transfer is a chain transfer as would appear from the original order of transfer dated 26.07.2019.

The learned Single Judge, after appreciating the submission advanced on behalf of the parties and considering the reasoned order dated 11.10.2019, wherein the transfer order appears to be administrative, has interfered and quashed the same, which is the subject matter of the present intra-court appeal.

4. Mrs. Darshana Poddar Mishra, lear