IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH.

229 CWP-8971-2021 (O&M).

Date of Decision: 07.03.2025.

RAJESH KUMAR ...Petitioner Versus FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA AND OTHERS …Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VINOD S. BHARDWAJ *****

Present: Mr. S.K. Verma, Advocate, for the petitioner.

Mr. Anurag Jain, Advocate, with Ms. Chahat, Advocate, Ms. Preeti Taneja, Advocate, and Mr. Rahul Chaudhary, Advocate for the respondents.

VINOD S. BHARDWAJ. J (ORAL).

Challenging the order dated 31.01.2020 whereby the petitioner has been ordered to be transferred from Haryana region to Rajasthan along with the order dated 16.04.2021 relieving the petitioner from Haryana and asking him to report for duty at Jaipur, the instant writ petition has been filed.

2 Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner contends that the petitioner was appointed as TA-III (i.e. Technical Assistant Grade-III) on 12.01.1996 and he has an unblemished career. The petitioner was promoted as TA-II in December 2004 and as TA-I in the year 2008. The department thereafter promoted the petitioner to the post of Manager Quality Control in June 2013 and posted him at District Office, Hisar. He submits that the petitioner is being repeatedly transferred from one station to another without any fault on his part and in violation of the transfer policy of the respondent- Corporation. The details of transfer orders of the petitioner are tabulated as under: -

3 He contends that apparently his tenure at one station has not been more than a year. He submits that despite such frequent transfers, the respondent-Corporation has now ordered for transfer of the petitioner from Haryana Region to Rajasthan on 31.01.2020 in violation of their own transfer policy guidelines and without the consent of the petitioner. He places reliance on the transfer guidelines issued by the respondents and circulated vide circular No.EP-03-2014-05 dated 12.02.2014. The operative part of the transfer policy reads thus:-

“The primary function of Food Corporation of India is to undertake purchase, storage, movement, transport, distribution and sale of foodgrains and other foodstuffs. In the discharge of these functions, the Corporation has to appoint sufficient number of employees and post them at various places throughout the country. In order to efficiently discharge the assigned functions, the Corporation has to expose its employees to various activities/functions and rotate them from one place to another. To regulate the placement and rotation of employees to various offices / stations Judiciously, in the best interest of the Corporation and to ensure that these are done in an objective and transparent manner, certain guidelines are hereby laid down.”

4 He further refers to the guidelines for special cases which are extracted as under:-

“4.3 Posting of husband and wife In view of the utmost importance attached to the enhancement of women's status in all walks of life and to enable them to lead a normal family life and also to ensure the education and welfare of the children, it has been decided to consider posting / transfer of the employees in the following situations: -

xxx xxx xxx

4.3.4 Where one spouse is employed in FCI and the other spouse is employed under the State Govt. or Central/State PSU, the spouse employed under FCI may apply to competent authority which may post the said employee to the station or if there is no post in that station to the State where the other spouse is posted.

5 He submits that the aforesaid guidelines apply to the cases where one spouse is employed in FCI and the other spouse is employed under the State Govt. or Central/State PSU. In such cases, the spouse employed with FCI may apply to competent authority which may post the said employee to that station and if there is no post on that station, to the State where the other spouse is posted. Applying the same, he submits that wife of the petitioner is a permanent employee of the Education Department Haryana and has since been w