Transfer of Group 'A' railway officers in administrative interest upheld; no absolute right to spouse posting, Placement Committee approval not mandatory, mid-session/child grounds exhaustible, SC policy directory; transfer incident of service without mala fides.

ORDER

PER MR. SANJIV KUMAR, MEMBER (A):

The instant OA has been filed by the applicant seeking the following relief(s):

“8.1 Impugned Transfer Order dated 05.09.2023 (Annexure-A/1) be set aside and quashed so far the applicant is concerned.

8.2 Impugned release Order dated 21.10.2025(Annexure-A/1) be set aside and quashed.

8.3. The Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the respondents to allow the applicant to continue his service in the present place of posting at Guwahati or nearby places.

8.4 Any other relief or reliefs as the Hon’ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper, including the cost of the case.”

2. The facts of the case are that the applicant was initially appointed as Section Engineer/Diesel/Lumding Diesel Shed, NFR on 08.05.1997 and became Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/Construction on 05.10.2020. The family of the applicant consists of his wife and 2 minor children. The wife of the applicant, Smt. Deepika Das is working as Trained Graduate Teacher at Netaji Vidyapith RHSS/Maligaon under GM/NFR. The daughter of the applicant is studying in class- XI in Army Public School, Narangi.

This application is moved against the impugned Transfer Order dated 05.09.2023 (Annexure-A/1), whereby the applicant while working as Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/Construction, N. F. Railway has been transferred to East Central Railway, Hajipur and subsequently, released by Order dated 21.10.2025 (Annexure-A/2) in gross violation of the statutory Railway Board's Circular dated 02.02.2010 (Annexure- A/5); Para 1(xvi) of the statutory Transfer Policy dated 31.08.2015 (Annexure-A/6) provides for spouse posting in the same station; Railway Board's letter dated 19.06.2018 (Annexure-A/13) directing that ‘SC/ST candidates should as far as practicable, be posted nearer to their home towns’; the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in T.S.R. Subramanian & Ors vs Union Of India & Ors [2013 (15) SCC 732] and Railway Board's letter dated 10.06.2014 (Annexure-A/8) mandating constitution and placement before the Placement Committee for recommendation of transfer and posting, and the settled position of law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in case of Director of School Education Vs O. Kuruppa Thevan [1994 Supp (2) SCC 666] forbidding transfer during mid-academic session of children. Moreso, the GM, NFR, the Competent Authority vide Letter dated 10.11.2023 (Annexure-A/17) already approved the request of the applicant for cancellation of his transfer and a lot of time had elapsed thereafter, thereby causing the said transfer order to lapse after the expiry of maximum period of 1 month of issuing the release order in terms of the transfer policy. His wife, Smt. Deepika Das is working as Trained Graduate Teacher at Netaji Vidyapith RHSS/Maligaon under GM/NFR and his minor daughter is studying in class XI in Army Public School, Narangi and in the middle of her academic session.

Further, it has been averred that Railway Board issued Circular dated 02.02.2010 (Annexure-A/5) on posting of husband and wife at the same station and adopted the DoP&T guidelines vide OM dated 30.09.2009 on mandatory posting of spouses in the same station when posts are available. Under 3(b), where both the spouses are railway employees and belong to different seniority units, it has been provided as under:

"Efforts may be made to post both the railway servants at the station where posts at appropriate level exist in the respective seniority units failing which requests for change of the category may be