Employment transfers based on compassionate grounds require careful reconsideration to avoid arbitrary administrative actions.

JUDGMENT

Dated this the 6^th day of February, 2026 The petitioner, who has been working as Assistant Manager in the Kerala Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (SUPPLYCO), was transferred and posted in Chengannur Depot as per Ext.P2 on 17.03.2025.

2. The petitioner states that the petitioner is a resident of Kollam District. The petitioner’s mother is a psychiatric patient and his wife is also suffering from various ailments. Unless the petitioner is posted somewhere near his home Station, the petitioner and his family will be put to untold hardship.

3. The petitioner, therefore, submitted a request for transferring and posting him somewhere in Kollam District. Thereupon, on compassionate grounds, the petitioner was granted a transfer to Kollam as per Ext.P4 order dated 26.07.2025. The petitioner joined the Kollam Station on 01.08.2025. To the surprise and predicament of the petitioner, on 13.01.2026, Ext.P6 order has been passed against the petitioner transferring the petitioner from Kollam to Neyyattinkara.

4. The petitioner states that Neyyattinkara is a place more than hundred kilometres away from the present Station. Such transfer will ruin the family life of the petitioner. The respondents can review a transfer given on compassionate grounds after one year. But in this case, within six months, the petitioner has been again transferred. This is highly arbitrary and illegal, contends the petitioner.

5. Standing Counsel entered appearance on behalf of respondents 2 to 4 and resisted the writ petition. The Standing Counsel denied all the material allegations made by the petitioner against the respondents. It is submitted that during the long years of deputation service of the petitioner in SUPPLYCO, during most of the time the petitioner was stationed in Kollam itself, though in different posts / designations. It was taking into consideration the long years stint of the petitioner in Kollam that the petitioner was transferred to Chengannur.

6. The respondents submitted that the post of Assistant Manager is a managerial post. It became necessary in administrative exigencies that the petitioner be transferred to Neyyattinkara, a northern Station. The transfer was needed on exigencies of administration. The petitioner has not advanced any reason to unsettle Ext.P6 order, contended the Standing Counsel.

7. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Government Pleader representing the 1^st respondent and the learned Standing Counsel representing respondents 2 to 4.

8. The petitioner has been transferred to Chengannur on 17.03.2025. As the petitioner’s family required the presence of the petitioner in the house or nearby area due to various medical reasons, the petitioner submitted an application for transfer back to Kollam on compassionate grounds. It is not disputed that the petitioner was transferred back to Kollam as per Ext.P4 on 26.07.2025 on compassionate medical grounds.

9. When the petitioner was transferred to Kollam on compassionate grounds hardly six months ago, the petitioner need not have been transferred to Neyyattinkara in a hurry. Though the respondents would submit that the transfer was necessitated as the petitioner is a managerial person and is in exigencies of administration, I do not find any specific reason relating to the exigency in the statement filed by respondents.

10. Taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner was posted to Kollam on 26.07.2025 on compassionate grounds and he has been transferred within six months to Neyyattinkara, I am of the view that the competent among respondents 2 to 4 shall review / reconsider the transfer now imposed on the petitioner.

Th