S.K. Soni vs The State of Madhya Pradesh

K.K. Trivedi, J.—The grievance of the petitioner is that he was earlier allocated to the State of Chhattisgarh at the time of reorganization of the State, against which he made a representation but since the same was not properly decided, he approached this Court by way of filing a writ petition in the year 2006. Pursuance to the direction issued in the writ petition filed by the petitioner, the representation of the petitioner was considered and by the order of the competent authority of the Central Government, the allocation of the petitioner was changed and he was allowed to continue in the State of Madhya Pradesh. In the garb of the order passed by the Central Government, now the order of posting in respect of the petitioner has been issued on 22.02.2013 wrongly mentioning the place of posting of the petitioner. When the defect was brought to the notice of the authorities, modification has been done and again now the petitioner is sought to be relieved vide order dated 30.08.2013, therefore, this writ petition is required to be filed. It is contended that since the petitioner was working at Shahgarh, District Sagar, right from the date of his allocation, he is to be allowed to continue on the said place. It is contended that there are certain difficulties, which the petitioner is facing and are not considered by the authorities, therefore, the order of posting as also the modified order dated 30.08.2013 are liable to be quashed. Learned Deputy Advocate General, appearing on advance copy of the writ petition, contends that such a posting of the petitioner after cancellation of his allocation to the State of Chhattisgarh is permissible and since looking to the requirement of the department the posting order has been issued in respect of petitioner, the same is not challengeable before this Court. It is further contended that at the time when the representation was made with respect to correction of place of posting indicated in the order issued on 22.02.2013 by the petitioner, the grounds as raised in the present writ petition have not been pointed out to the authorities otherwise the same would have been taken into consideration. It is further contended that no representation is made by the petitioner against the order of his posting and, therefore, the writ petition is not maintainable.

Considering the rival submissions made by learned Counsel for the parties, it would be appropriate for the respondents to consider issuance of fresh order of posting in respect of the petitioner after final order passed by the Central Government with respect to the allocation of the petitioner to the State of Chhattisgarh. This is being observed only because earlier order of relieving of the petitioner pursuance to the allocation to the State of Chhattisgarh was also quashed by this Court while the earlier writ petition filed by the petitioner was allowed. However, the administrative requirements of the department are to be considered and then only necessary orders are required to be issued.

For the aforesaid reasons, it is directed that the petitioner will make a representation before respondent No. 2 within a week from today, which will be considered and decided by the said authority within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of the representation. Till the aforesaid exercise is completed, the status quo with respect to the posting of the petitioner in the present place of posting be maintained.

With the aforesaid, the writ petition stands finally disposed of. Certified copy as per rules.