The court directed the petitioner, relieved ex-parte due to a transfer, to submit his joining at the new place before filing a representation against the transfer, citing Apex Court precedent.
Petitioner directed to submit joining and prefer representation within 10 days; authority to decide within 3 weeks.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC-LKO:64086
Court No. - 4
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 7615 of 2024
Petitioner :- Keshav Lal Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Home, Lko. And Another Counsel for Petitioner :- Mayankar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Rajesh Singh Chauhan,J.
Heard Sri Mayankar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Shailendra Pratap Singh, learned C.S.C. for the State.
Learned counsel for the petitioner has filed supplementary affidavit, same is taken on record.
This Court has passed order dated 10.9.2024 which reads as under :
"1. Heard Shri Mayankar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri R.P.S. Chauhan, learned Additional C.S.C. for the Staterespondents.
2. By means of this petition, the petitioner has assailed the office memo dated 22.08.2024 passed by the Special Secretary, Public Works Department, Lucknow transferring the petitioner, who is serving on the post of Executive Engineer (Civil) from Prantiya Khand, PWD, Basti to Parikalpana Khand-11, PWD, Lucknow.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has stated that with effect from 2017 till date, the petitioner has been subjected to seven transfers despite the fact that as per the trite law, the frequent transfer is not permissible under the law unless there is any cogent reason to that effect. He has further submitted that the children of the petitioner are studying in Class 9th and 12th, therefore, unless there is any administrative reason or ground, the transfer of an employee in mid educational session should be avoided and for this reason, the last date for routine transfer has been determined as 30th of June of the concerning year.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner has been relieved ex-parte but neither he has submitted his joining at the transferred place i.e., Lucknow on account of medical reason nor anyone else has submitted his joining at Basti, therefore, the impugned transfer order may be stayed.
5. Learned Additional C.S.C. has submitted that he has no instructions in the matter, therefore, he may be given some reasonable time to seek complete instructions.
6. List this case on 17.09.2024 as fresh to enable the learned
Additional C.S.C. to seek complete written instructions in the matter.
7. This matter may be taken up immediately after fresh cases."
Learned C.S.C. has produced the copy of instructions dated 14.9.2024 preferred by the Deputy Secretary, P.W.D., U.P. Government enclosing therewith several documents, same are taken on record.
As per aforesaid instructions for transferring various Executive Engineers the proposal was sent on 18.7.2024 and after getting approval from the Chief Minister 77 Executive Engineers were transferred from one place to another including the petitioner.
Learned C.S.C. has further submitted that pursuant to the transfer order the petitioner has already been relieved, however, he has not submitted his joining. He has also submitted that if the petitioner is having any bonafide grievance he may submit representation after submitting his joining in terms of dictum of Apex Court in re: S.C. Saxena vs. Union of India and others reported in (2006) 9 Supreme Court Cases 58 3 and if his grievance appears to be bonafide any appropriate decision may be taken by the competent authority, therefore, before placing the grievance the petitioner should submit his joining at the transferred place.
On that learned counsel for the petitioner has stated that in last seven years the petitioner has been transferred seven times, however, he has not assailed the earlier transfer orders but he is serving at Basti w.e.f. 10.7.2022 and has been transferred from Basti to Lucknow on 22.8.2024. So far as the study of the children of the petitioner is concerned it has been indicated in the instruction letter that the petitioner is serving at Basti whereas his children are studying at Gorakhpur. Therefore, this is not the case where the children of the petitioner are living with the petitioner.
Be that as it may, the transfer is an exigency of service and if the petitioner has not assailed the earlier transfer orders, some of them are frequent transfers in a same year or within a years then it may be presumed that for earlier transfer orders the petitioner was not aggrieved. So far as the present transfer order is concerned, pursuant to the transfer order the petitioner has been relieved ex-parte, therefore, he should submit his joining at Lucknow and after submitting his joining he may prefer a fresh representation to the competent authority i.e. opposite party no. 1 within 10 days taking all pleas and grounds which are available to him and the concerning authority may decide
the same by a speaking and reasoned order within three weeks.
In such representation the petitioner may also take the plea for his posting at any appropriate place nearby to the Gorakhpur or Basti indicating the name of the district specifically in his representation and any appropriate decision may be taken on that request too.
It is needless to say that the concerned authority shall decide the representation of the petitioner if he prefers a representation after submitting his joining at the transferred place in view of dictum of Apex Court in re: S.C. Saxena (supra) and decision thereof shall be intimated to the petitioner forthwith.
It is made clear that this order has been passed without entering into the merits of the issue.
Writ petition is finally disposed of .
[Rajesh Singh Chauhan, J.]
Order Date :- 17.9.2024 Om
Digitally signed by :- OM PRAKASH MISHRA High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench
3 issues framed by the court
Whether a transfer order ex-parte relieved employee must submit joining before filing representation against it.
Whether the court can decide the merits of the transfer without intimation from the State.
Whether the employee can request posting at a specific district in the representation.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
S.C. Saxena vs. Union of IndiaApplied¶19
re: S.C. Saxena vs. Union of India and others reported in (2006) 9 Supreme Court Cases 58
Keshav Lal
State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Deptt. Of Home, Lko.
Rajesh Singh Chauhan
As recorded by the court registry
3 orders share this CNR
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
