Govardhan Singh vs State Of Uttarakhand & Another

Vipin Sanghi, CJ

1) The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition to assail the Office Order dated 25.07.2022, whereby he has been transferred to Minor Irrigation Division, Chamoli, on the vacant post of Executive Engineer with immediate effect in public interest.

2) The petitioner is presently serving as Executive Engineer at Minor Irrigation Division, Nainital, since 25.09.2019. Prior to joining the said post, he has served as Assistant Engineer at Haldwani.

3) The grievance raised by the petitioner, in the present petition, is that he has been posted to an inaccessible area, even though he had rendered, according to him, 23 years in inaccessible areas during the course of his service. The petitioner claims that he was exempted from being posted in a remote or inaccessible area by virtue of Section 7(d)(ii) of the Uttarakhand Annual Transfer for Public Servants Act, 2017 (for brevity hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) since he has done more than 10 years of service in remote areas.

4) On the last date, counsel for the respondents has sought an adjournment to take instructions whether Chamoli is considered as a remote or accessible area. Today, he stated that Chamoli is, indeed, considered as an inaccessible area. His submission, however, is that the petitioner has done 17 years of service in remote area, and not 23 years, as claimed by him. Even if this submission of learned counsel for the respondents were to be accepted that the petitioner has served for 17 years in remote areas, and not 23 years, the situation does not change, inasmuch as, the petitioner is exempted from being posted to remote area by virtue of Section 7(d)(ii) of the Act, which reads as follows:

“7. There shall be following kind of Annual transfer, namely : -

(a) …

(b) …

(c) …

(d) The employees under following categories shall exempted from compulsory transfer from accessible area to remote area; namely :-

(i) …

(ii) Such employees who have already completed minimum 10 years service in remote areas, and;”

5) Merely, because the petitioner has continuously served in accessible area for the last 07 years, it does not follow that the exemption provided under Section 7(d)(ii) of the Act, would not be available to him. The petitioner has rendered service in remote areas in the earlier part of his carrier, and the respondent cannot grudge the fact that he has been serving in accessible area for the past 07 years. It is not that the petitioner has been posted to Chamoli on account of any disciplinary proceedings pending against him, or as a matter of disciplinary action.

6) We, therefore, allow this petition, and quash the transfer of the petitioner by the impugned order dated 25.07.2022.

Stay Application (IA No. 01 of 2022) also stands disposed of.