West Bengal cadre IAS officer Alankrita Pandey (IAS:2016:WB) will be with Bihar cadre now. The Centre has transferred Ms. Pandey to Bihar in compliance with the Delhi high court order. Delhi High court ordered the Centre to transfer Alankrita, on the grounds of her marriage to Bihar cadre IAS officer Anshul Agrawal (IAS:2016:BH).
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Alankrita fought a long legal battle against the state of West Bengal in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and the Delhi high court. After getting married to her batchmate in 2018, Alankrita made a representation to the Union government, the State of Bihar, and the State of West Bengal. Her request was to change her cadre to Bihar. In response to her representation, the Bihar government responded positively, but the West Bengal government showed little interest. The West government did not pass an order on her representation, nor did it issue a no objection certificate stating there was no objection to her changing cadre.
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This matter was put on hold by the West Bengal government for over two years. Alankrita filed a complaint before the CAT, seeking a direction to the state government to take a decision on her representation for change of cadre. The state government stated in its filing to the CAT that it could not take steps on her representation due to the assembly elections and the covid-19 epidemic
On July 28, 2021, the CAT directed the state government to pass orders on Aalnkrita’s representation for cadre change within four weeks of receiving a copy of its order.
However, the West Bengal chief secretary did not respond well to this. In an order passed on September 1, 2021, the state government refused to accede to the request of Alankrita citing reasons like the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, the need of the services of administrative officers, and the shortage of IAS officers in West Bengal. In contrast, the state government proposed that if Anshul, husband of Alankrita, applied for inter-cadre transfer from Bihar to West Bengal, the state government may grant him a NOC.
In the wake of the Delhi high court order, the Centre through a recent order on September 16 transferred Alankrita to Bihar cadre on the grounds of her marriage.
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