Kehar Singh vs State Of Himachal Pradesh And Another

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J

Even though respondent No.5 stands served however there is no appearance on his behalf. Aggrieved by the order of transfer, petitioner has filed

the instant petition for grant of following substantive relief:-

“i) That in view of the above mentioned facts and circumstances mentioned hereinabove, the respondents may kindly be directed to revoke the

transfer order dated 07.09.2020 qua the petitioner and further to set aside the office order dated 07.09.2020 qua the petitioner by this Hon’ble

Court in the interest of justice.

It is not in dispute that the petitioner is due to retire on 30.04.2021 i.e. less than 4 months from today.

In similar circumstances, coordinate Bench of this Court in CWP No. 3154 of 2019 titled as Tara Chand versus State of H.P, decided on

17.12.2019, has, while quashing the transfer order, observed as under:-

“3.The private respondent is due for retirement on 31st May, 2020 on superannuation. He, as such, left only with five months of service to retire,

hence not interested in his transfer to the office of Superintending Engineer, HPPWD 1st Circle, Mandi. Now according to Mr. Sharma, learned

counsel, the private respondent is in the process of preparation of his pension papers. We feel that irrespective of the transfer of the petitioner and

private respondent is from one office to another in the same building i.e. HPPWD Office at Mandi, however, at a stage when the private respondent

is due for retirement and also in the process of preparing the pension papers, it may not be proper to compel him to join at the transferred station

consequent upon the impugned order Annexure P-1.

We, therefore, defer the transfer of the petitioner from the present place of posting to the office of Land Acquisition Officer, HPPWD, Mandi and

leave it open to the respondent-State to consider the same after the retirement of the private respondent.â€​

Since the case of the petitioner is identical to the one of Tara Chand (supra), therefore, the impugned transfer order dated 07.09.2020 is quashed

and the petitioner is permitted to continue at the current place of posting, however, that shall be subject to the conduct and working of the petitioner

and this order is only being passed in exceptional circumstances so as to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the retiring employee.

The instant petition stands disposed of in the aforesaid terms, so also the pending application(s), if any.

Copy dasti.