IMPORTANT POINT
Transfer orders within a corporation are valid administrative actions and do not require statutory regulations, affirming the limited scope of judicial review in such matters.

JUDGMENT :

Ajit Kumar, J.

1. Heard Sri Anoop Trivedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Vikas Upadhyay, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Vinay Bhushan Upadhyay, learned counsel for the petitioner in connected petition being Writ - A No.- 9702 of 2024, Sri Shivam Shukla, learned counsel for the petitioner in connected petition being Writ - A No.- 10495 of 2024, Sri Prabhakar Awasthi, learned counsel for the petitioner in connected petition being Writ - A No.- 10096 of 2024, Sri Abhishek Srivastava, learned counsel for the corporation, Sri Adarsh Bhushan, learned counsel for the Managing Director, Purvanchal Vidyut Nitaran Nigam Ltd. Varanasi and Sri Manoj Kumar Sriavastava, learned counsel for the Chief Engineer, Prayagraj.

2. In all these connected petitions different transfer orders have been challenged but more or less the grounds are the same for assailing the transfer orders. Hence all the petitions are being heard to be decided by a common judgment.

3. The petition being Writ – A No.- 10189 of 2024 is taken to be leading petition for reference purposes.

4. Petitioners before this Court in Writ – A No.- 10189 of 2024 are employees working in the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam, Ltd, a Distribution and Supply of the Electricity Company (DISCOM) with the headquarters at Varanasi.

5. The petitioners, who are 8 in numbers are aggrieved by the transfer order dated 28th June, 2024, whereby they have been transferred from their current place of posting to new zone falling in different districts named in the transferred order.

6. It is worth mentioning that petitioner No.- 1 Anupam Srivastava working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Prayagraj to Varanasi zone, petitioner No.- 2 Sanjay Kumar Pandey working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Prayagraj to Mirzapur zone, petitioner No.- 3 Ugrasen Singh working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Kaushambi to Varanasi zone, petitioner No.- 4 Nitin Narayan Srivastava working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Gorakhpur to Azamgarh zone, petitioner No.- 5 Abhishek Gupta working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Prayagraj to Varanasi zone, petitioner No.- 6 Hitesh Bhatnagar working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Prayagraj to Varanasi zone, petitioner No.- 7 Ranjeet Kumar Yadav working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Prayagraj to Varanasi zone and petitioner No.- 8 Ram Prakash working as Executive Assistant has been transferred from Azamgarh to Gorakhpur zone.

7. In writ petition being Writ – A No.- 9702 of 2024 petitioner Rahul Kumar working as Executive Officer has been transferred from Varanasi to Maharajganj, which is in Gorakhpur zone under the transfer order dated 28th June, 2024.

8. In writ petition being Writ – A No.- 10495 of 2024, petitioner Ganga Prasad Jaisawal working as Executive Officer has been transferred from Prayagraj to new allotted Circle/ EDC Fatehpur.

9. In writ petition being Writ – A No.0 10096 of 2024 the petitioner Arun Kumar Singh working as Executive Engineer has been transferred from District Supply Division Varanasi to the office of Chief Engineer Distribution, Basti Circle, Basti vide transfer order dated 21st June, 2024.

10. The orders of transfer have been challenged basically on three grounds:

(i). Transfer policy of the year 2019-2020 was an annual transfer policy which is no more in existence and merely by a circular letter issued on 22nd July, 2023, such a transfer policy cannot be re- enforced, nor such a circular letter can grant extension to an annual transfer policy of a particular year for subsequent years;

(ii). Transfer is one of the conditions of service and with Uttar Pradesh Electricity Reforms Transfer Scheme, 2000 coming into force, the corporation was required to frame statutory rules, failing which the old Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board Rules will be applicable as the existing service conditions of the Board were to apply muta