The Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the plea of a 100 per cent visually challenged Haryana Cadre IAS Officer questioning Haryana government’s order to transfer him from the post of Deputy Commissioner (DC), Fatehabad, to the post of Director General, Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute of Fiscal Management (SJHIFM).
Upholding the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had earlier dismissed the IAS officer’s plea seeking to invalidate the government order, the division bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma said, “It would not be out of way to mention here that transfer is an incident of service and no government servant has a vested right to remain posted at a place of his choice nor can an employee dictate terms with regard to his place of posting.
In his petition, IAS officer Ravi Prakash Gupta (IAS:2007:HY) had contended that he is physically handicapped (100 per cent visually impaired). Aggrieved with the orders of transfer, Gupta, after not getting favour from CAT, moved Punjab and Haryana High Court and filed a petition.
Gupta was posted as DC, Fatehabad, in December 2019. But, after few months, he was transferred from the post of DC, Fatehabad to Director General, Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute of Fiscal Management (SJHIFM) in May 2020. Against which Gupta moved CAT again on June 3, 2020, arguing that there is a violation of Rule 7 of Cadre Rules having been passed before completion of two years of service and secondly that Haryana state has not given any reasons for passing the order. The CAT, however, dismissed the plea of Gupta.
The division bench after hearing the matter, held, “it cannot be said that there has been violation of the statutory rules by the respondents/state while transferring the petitioner as the mandate of the said rules has been fully complied with. No doubt the petitioner was posted as Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad, vide order dated 28.12.2019 passed by the competent authority i.e. the Chief Secretary to Government of Haryana, the state government was empowered to transfer the petitioner before the minimum specified period provided a recommendation of the Civil Services Board had been received as specified in the Schedule annexed to the Rules…”
