[2025:RJ-JD:9789]

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT JODHPUR S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1193/2025 Jivraj Kaswan S/o Mamraj Kaswan, Aged About 46 Years, R/o Village Lalasar, Banirotan Tehsil And Dist. Churu Raj. At Present Lalasar Banirotan, Block Churu, Dist. Churu.

----Petitioner Versus

1. State Of Rajasthan, Through The Secretary, Medical And Health Department Government Of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

2. The Director, (Non Gazetted) Medical And Health Services Department, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

3. Chief Medical And Health Officer, Ratangarh, Dist.

Churu, Rajasthan.

4. Block Chief Medical And Health Officer, Churu, Dist.

Churu, Rajasthan.

----Respondents Connected with the bunch of petitions as per Appendix ‘A”.

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Manish Patel, Mr. Tanwar Singh, Mr. S.K. Saini, Mr. V.S. Bhawla, Mr. Mukesh Vyas, Mr. Shyam Vyas, Mr. Vikas Bijarnia, Ms. Sangeeta Mittal, Mr. Love Jain, Mr. Pawan Singh, Mr. Yashpal Khileree, Mr. Ramesh Kumar, Mr. Madhav Vyas, Mr. Priyanshu Gopa and Mr. O.P. Sangwa.

For Respondent(s) : Mr. Pawan Bharti for Mr. I.R. Choudhary, AAG Mr. Tanuj Jain for Mr. Mukesh Dave, A.G.C.

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN MONGA

Order (Oral)

18/02/2025

1. In this bunch of petitions under challenge are respective transfer orders of the contractual employees (petitioners).

Assertion is that not only their transfer is sheer mechanical exercise of mind, but also in blatant non-compliance of applicable Rules. Facts of individual cases are thus not being gone into, as what is assailed herein simplicitor is the procedure, legality and the administrative propriety of the transfers/postings of the petitioners. Vide this common order, above tilted petition along with the ones recited in Appendix (A) are being disposed of as similar issues are involved therein.

2. Concededly, all the petitioners are contractual employees working in different Departments i.e. Medical & Health/ Panchayati Raj and Rural Development of the State of Rajasthan. They have been appointed under the Rajasthan Contractual Hiring to Civil Posts Rules, 2022 (for short, 'the Rules of 2022').

3. Common grievance being, that by virtue of transfers carried out by the respondents, the petitioners, being contractual on jobs, are very low-paid employees vis-à-vis their counter parts in regular employment. They have been dislodged, contrary to the provisions of Rule 16(ii) of the Rules of 2022.

4. They also assert that impugned transfer orders have been passed in complete short shrift of even the most deserving cases of individual extreme hardships.

4.1. Averment also is that the transfer exercise has been carried out in the most mechanical manner, which on the face of it, though may not be punitive, but unwittingly many of the employees would have to relocate themselves to very far off places. Notwithstanding, that they are on the bottom of the pyramid of the human resource deployed by the respondents. Thus, a contractual class-III or IV, as the case may be, is being paid lesser that even the lowest pay-band, i.e. even less than the regular pay of a Class-III/IV employee, can financially ill afford to relocate his family and/or make alternative housing arrangements for them, besides other logistical hurdles requiring extra expenditure to resolve.

5. In the aforesaid backdrop, I have heard the rival contentions and perused all the case files.

6. First and foremost, the Rule 16 of the Rules of 2022, which is the subject matter of interpretation herein, may be seen. For ready reference, the same is reproduced hereinbelow:- "16. General conditions, ethics and observance.- The person hired on contract shall.-

(i) observe general satisfactory conduct and ethics at the level expected under orders/rules and instructions issued by higher authorities;

(ii) not be transferred from one place to any other place;

(iii) not accept any full time/part time employment or engage in any other work, business occupation or pursue any study course without prior approval of the Government;

(iv) comply the