Point of Law: Employment and Service matter - Right to retain his lien on post of Associate Professor - Non Objection certificate issued by respondent - Whether Justified - Respondents are justified in claiming that due to dearth of faculty members, respondent no.1 had decided not to permit any faculty member to leave College in case he/she was applying for same post in another educational institution.

JUDGMENT :

Sri Raghvendra Singh Chauhan, J.

Aggrieved by the order dated 22.02.2021 passed by the Board of Management, D.A.V. P.G. College (respondent no.1), the petitioner, Dr. Dharmendra Kumar Shahi, has approached this Court.

2. Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that in 2000 the petitioner was appointed as the Associate Professor (Geography) by the Board of Management, D.A.V. P.G. College, the respondent no. 1. Meanwhile, the Jawahar Lal Nehru University (for short the “JNU”) advertised a vacancy for the post of Associate Professor, in the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies at the University. Since the petitioner was eligible for the said post, he sought the permission of respondent no. 1, and of the Principal, D.A.V. College, the respondent no. 2. On 05.08.2019, an NOC was issued in his favour. The petitioner went through the selection process with the JNU. On 11.11.2020, the JNU offered him appointment to the post of Associate Professor. The petitioner accepted the appointment offer by his letter dated 13.11.2020. By letter dated 16.11.2020, the Registrar (Academics), JNU directed the petitioner to join the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies within a period of four months. The petitioner was also informed that, in case the JNU does not hear from him about his accepting the offer of appointment, it will be deemed that he is no longer interested.

3. The petitioner claims that while he is eager to join the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies at JNU, he still wants to retain his lien over his post as an Associate Professor with respondent nos. 1 and 2. Therefore, on 18.11.2020, on 18.01.2021 and on 02.02.2021, he has repeatedly represented to respondent nos. 1 and 2 that they should permit him to take one year’s leave without pay, and permit him to join the JNU. Moreover, they should permit him to retain his lien on the post of Associate Professor with respondent nos. 1 and 2. By order dated 22.02.2021, the petitioner’s request, for issuing of the relieving order on the basis of the NOC issued by the competent authority, has been declined by respondent no. 1. The grievance of the petitioner is that, although the respondents had granted an NOC, they are not willing to grant leave without pay for one year to him so that he can join the JNU. Hence, the present writ petition before this Court.

4. Mr. S.S. Yadav, the learned counsel for the petitioner, has raised the following contentions before this Court :

Firstly, that on 26.12.2013, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel & Training), Government of India had issued an Office Memorandum dealing with resignation, and lien to be retained by the government employees. Clause 1 of the said Office Memorandum defined the term “lien”. Clause 3 defined the term “lien on a post”. Clause (5) dealt with “retention of lien for appointment in another Central Government Department/Offices/State Government”. According to the learned counsel, “if a permanent employee is selected, on the basis of his application, for posts in other Central Government Department/Offices/State Government, his lien may be retained in the parent department for a period of two years. If the employee concerned is not permanently absorbed within a period of two years from the date of his appointment in the new post, he should immediately, on expiry of the period of two years, either resign from the service, or revert to his parent cadre. An undertaking to abide by this condition may be taken from him at the time of forwarding of his application to other departments/offices. The Office Memorandum dated 26.12.2013 has been reiterated in the Office Memorandum dated 27.08.2018 issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, (Department of Personnel & Training), Government of India. Thus, according to the learned counsel, since