A transfer order issued in contravention of the transfer policy laid down in the Shastri Award and the bank's own guidelines on transfer/job rotation of Award Staff is liable to be quashed.

( 1 ) THIS writ petition is directed against the impugned order dated 5th December, 1988 by means of which the petitioner who is employed as Clerk in Allahabad Bank, Lucknow was transferred to Allahabad Bank, Branch Gonda in a newly established branch of the said bank. The new grounds upon which the transfer has been passed are in contravention of Para 534 of the Shastri award dealing with the transfer policy of transferring an employee working in the said bank as well as the guideline, dated June 11, 1988 on transfer job rotation of Award Staff adopted by the said bank.

( 2 ) THERE is no dispute that banks are entitled to transfer its staff on the exigencies of the service from one particular branch to another and the Management is in the best position to judge how to transfer its staff between different branches, but it has to be seen whether the impugned order of transfer is in conformity with the policy regarding transfer which has been agreed upon by the parties and which was subject to the Shastri Award. It is provided in Para 536 of the said Award that in all cases the number of transfers to which a workman is subjected should be strictly limited and normally it should not be more than once in a year. It has also been laid down in the said Award that the discretion ("from transferring an employee from a particular branch to another branch") may not be abused and transfers effected on considerations other than the needs of the administration. Thus, in this case it has to be seen whether the transfer of the petitioner is in accordance with policy laid down in Shastri Award or not and whether the transferring authority has abused his discretion in the matter of the transfer. The Honble Supreme Court in the case of Management of the Syndicate Bank v. The Workmen (1966-I-LLJ-440), has laid down that there is no doubt that the banks are entitled to decide on the considerations of necessities of the banking business whether the transfer of an employee should be made to a particular branch and further observed that there is no doubt that the Management of the bank is in the best position to judge how to distribute its employees between the different branches. In writ petition No. 4937 of 1986, Sri Pradeep Kumar Saraswat v. Zonal Manager and Anr. , a division Bench of this Court consisting of Honble Mr. Justice S. S. Ahmad and Honble Mr. Justice Brijesh Kumar have also endorsed the above view, after considering Para 534 of the shastri Award and vacated the interim order, dated 31st December, 1986 passed in the aforesaid writ petition and rejected the stay application. The said writ petition is still pending for disposal.

( 3 ) THE other ground which was vehemently argued on behalf of petitioner was that opposite parties have no right to transfer him from Lucknow Branch to Gonda Branch in as much as the said order of transfer was in contravention of the general guidelines on transfer/job rotation of the Award Staff, dated 11th June, 1988 contained in Annexure 4 issued by the Deputy General manager, Punjab Bank Head Office, 2, Netaji Subhash Marg, Calcutta.

( 4 ) THE opposite party No. 2 in his own counter-affidavit in paras 17 and 18 has not denied this fact that the aforementioned guidelines were issued by the Head Office of the Bank. In Para 18 of the counter-affidavit the opposite party No. 2 has stated that the impugned order of transfer was passed on the request of General Secretary of the Staff Association, who in his letter dated 6th September, 1988 has stated that the junior-most clerks-cum-cashier be posted at Gonda region.

( 5 ) A perusal of Annexure 4, i. e. , the general guidelines on transfer/job rotation of Award Staff which was arrived as a result of natural consent between All India Allahabad Bank Employees coordination Committee and the Bank authorities should show that the Management has the right to transfer an employee who has completed more than five years at a particular branch/office and n