Chief
General Manager (Telecom) N.E. Telecom Circle & Anr Vs. Shri Rajendra Ch. Bhattacharjee
& Ors [1995] INSC 63 (18 January 1995)
Faizan
Uddin (J) Faizan Uddin (J) Agrawal, S.C.
(J) Faizan Uddin, J.:
CITATION:
1995 AIR 813 1995 SCC (2) 532 JT 1995 (1) 440 1995 SCALE (1)250
ACT:
HEAD NOTE:
1.
Leave granted.
2.
Arguments of the learned counsel for the parties heard.
3. The
short question that arises for consideration in this appeal is whether the
transfer of a civilian employee of the Central Government serving in the States
and Union Territories of North Eastern region, to a station of their choice as
far as possible, is a condition applicable even to those officers and employees
who belong to that region itself and are appointed and posted at any station
within that region by virtue of the office memorandum No. 20014/283-E.IV dated
14.12.1983, the relevant part of which read as under:- "The need for
attracting and retaining the services of competent officers for service in the
North-Eastern Region comprising the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland
and Tripura and the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram has been
engaging the attention of the Government for some time.
The
Government had appointed a Committee 442 under the Chairmanship of Secretary,
De- partment of Personnel & Administrative Reforms to review the existing
allowances and facilities admissible to the various cat- egories of civilian
Central Government employees serving in this region and to suggest suitable
improvements. The rec- ommendations of the committee have been carefully
considered by the Government and the President is now pleased to decide as
follows office :
(1)
Tenure ofposting/deputation There will be a fixed tenure of posting of 3 years
at a time for officers with service of 10 years or less and 2 years at a time
for officers with more than 10 years of service.
Periods
of leave training etc. in excess of 15 days per year will be excluded in
counting the tenure period of 2/3 years. Officers on completion of the fixed
tenure of service mentioned above may be considered for posting to a station of
their choice as far as possible.
The
period of deputation of Om: Central Government employees to the states/ Union
Territories of the North Eastern Region will generally be for 3 yews which can
be extended in exceptioned cases in exigencies of public services as well as
when the employee concerned is prepared to stay longer. The admissible
deputation allowance will also continue to be paid during the period of deputation
so extended.
(ii)
-------- (iii) Special (Duty) Allowance Central Government civilian employees
who have All India transfer liability will be granted a special (Duty)
Allowance at the rate of 25 per cent of basic pay subject to a ceiling of Rs.400/-
per month on posting to any station in the North Eastern Region. Such of those
employees who are exempt from payment of income tax will however, not be
eligible for this special (Duty) Allowance special (Duty) Allowance will be in
a addition to any special pay and/or deputation (Duty) Allowance already being
drawn subject to the conditions that that total of such special (Duty)
Allowance plus special pay/P.M. special Allowance like special compensatory
(Remote Locality) Allowance Construction Allowance and project Allowance will
be drawn separately."
4. The
respondent No. 1 was originally appointed as Wireless Operator in the
department of Post & Telegraph in the year 1964 and posted at Bandilla in
the State of Arunachal
Pradesh and
thereafter he has been working eversince in the North Eastern region of India and presently posted as Assistant
Engineer at Dimapur. The detail of his postings at various places in the North
Eastern region is set out herein below.
YEAR
OFPOSTING PLACE OF P0STING
1.
1964 Bemdda as Wireless Opaator
2.
1965 Agartala as Wireless Operator
3.
1967 Lungleh (Mizoram) -do-
4.
1968 Guwahati -do-
5.
1969 Agartala -do- Supervisor
6.
1971 Aizawl As Engg. Supervisor
7.
1973 R.K. Pur (Udaipur Tripura State) -do-
8.
1978 Agartala -do-
9.
1983 Two (Garo Hills, Meghalaya) -do-
10.
1984 Agartala -do
11.
1.5.87 to 17.1.90 Agartala as SDO Telegraphs
12.
18.1.90 to 23.10.90 Shillong as ALE.
13.
20. 10.90 to 15.7.93 Tuensang as A-E.
14.
16.7.93 continued Dimapur as A-E.
5.The
Government of India with a view to attract and retain competent offic- 443 ers
for services in the North Eastern region issued the memo dated 14.12.1983 the
relevant part of which is reproduced above laying down that "there will be
a fixed tenure of posting of three years at a place for officers with service
of ten years or less and of two years at a time for officers with more than ten
years of service........ Officers on completion of the fixed tenure of service
mentioned above, may be considered for posting to a station of their choice as
far as possible". On the basis of the aforesaid memo of the Government of
India the respondent No. 1 claimed posting at Agartala as the station of his
choice contending that he had completed service of two years tenure period in
the North Eastern region. But the Chief General Manager, North Eastern Telecom
Circle, Shillong by order dated 8.7.1993 transferred the respondent No. 1 to Dimapur.
Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order of transfer the respondent No.1
approached the Central Administrative Tribunal contending that he had served at
Tuensang (Nagaland) as Assistant Engineer, Computer from 24.10.1990 to
15.7.1993 and had thus completed tenure period of two years and, therefore, on
the basis of the Central Government memorandum referred to above had acquired
the right of a choice posting and as his choice station was Agartala he should
be posted there and not at Dimapur (Nagaland). The Central Administrative
Tribunal, Gauhati Bench, in Original Application No. 268 of 1993 accepted the
contention advanced on behalf of the respondent No. 1 and by its order dated
25.1.1994 held that the respondent No. 1 had acquired the right of choice
posting as he had completed tenure posting in hard zone i.e. North Eastern
region and he was, therefore, entitled to posting at Agartala. Consequently the
Tribunal directed to transfer the respondent No. 1 from Dimapur to Agartala
against a vacant post of Assistant Engineer, Telecommunication within 21 days
of the receipt of the said order and if no vacant post is presently available,
the respondent shall be transferred to Agartala in the next available vacancy.
It is this order of the Tribunal which has been challenged in the present
appeal.
6.Learned
counsel appearing for the appellant contended that it is clear from the Central
Government memo dated 14.12.1983 that the consideration for posting at a
station of choice is provided only for those officers who come to North Eastern
region to complete their tenure posting and the said choice is not available to
those officers who are appointed and posted in the North Eastern region itself
and that even otherwise the posting at the station of choice is not a mandatory
condition. We find much force in these sub- missions. A bare reading of the
memo dated 14.12.1983 will go to show that it is meant for attracting and
retaining the services of competent officers in the NorthEastern region, from
other parts the country and the expression tenure posting will imply the
posting of officers in that region from outside the region who have been
attracted from other parts of the country and the region other than the North
Eastern region and not the persons belonging to that very region where they are
appointed and posted. This was also the view expressed by this Court in Union
of India & Ors. v. Vijay Kumar & Ors. [JT 1994 (6) 443]. The point for
consideration in Vijay Kumar's case (supra) was whether the respondents of that
case were entitled to special duty allowance even though they are residents of
North Eastern 444 region merely because of the posts to which they were
appointed were of "All India Transfer Liability". After considering
various memorandums of the Central Government including the one dated
14.12.1983 which is in question before us and after due consideration this
Court took the view that the said memorandums clearly indicated that the
allowance was meant to attract persons outside the North Eastern region to work
in the region because of in- accessibility and difficult terrain. This view was
taken particularly because even the 1983 memorandum referred to above stated
that the need for allowance was felt for "attracting and retaining"
the service of competent officers for service in North Eastern region. Applying
the same analogy it can well be said that the 1983 memorandum with regard to
the choice posting after the tenure posting is available only to persons
bonging to the region other than the North Eastern region. Admittedly the
respondent No. 1 belongs to North Eastern region and Agartala which is in the
State of Tripura is his home town. There is also no
dispute that he was originally appointed and posted in that region and the
detailed chart given in para 3 above will go to show that all through he has
been posted at places within the North Eastern region eversince his appointment
and for most part of his service career he was posted at Agartala. It is
evident from the chart showing the details of his places of postings that he
remained at Agartala between 1965 to 1967 and 1969 to 197L He was again transferred
and posted at Agartala in 1978 where he remained till 1983. In 1984 he was
again posted at Agartala. Thereafter he remained posted at Agartala from
1.5.1987 to 17.1.1990 Thus for most of the part of his service the respondent
No. 1 was posted at his home town, Agartala.
7. It
is needless to emphasis that a Government employee or any servant of a Public
Undertaking has no legal right to insist for being posted at any particular
place. It cannot be disputed that the respondent holds a transferable post and
unless specifically provided in his service conditions, he has no choice in the
matter of posting. Since the respondent has no legal or statutory right to
claim his posting at Agartala and, therefore, there was no justification for
the tribunal to set aside the respondent's transfer to Dimapur.
8.
Apart from the above facts the appellants have stated in the memo of appeal
which is supported by an affidavit filed by Shri P.C. Chaturvedi, Vigilance
Officer of the Office of Chief General Manager, N.E. Telecom Circle, Shillong
that during the last posting of respondent No. 1 at Agartala from 1.5.1987 to
17.1.1990 a number of complaints were reccived from the staff unions against
him. There are also several complaints of various irregularities committed by
the respondent No.1 which are being separately investigated by the vigilance
department and a copy of a complaint signed by 270 employees has been filed as
Annexure 'B' alongwith the memo of appeal. In these facts and cir- cumstances
the posting of respondent No. 1 at Agartala would not be justifiable from the
administrative point of view also. The transfer of a public servant made on ad-
ministrative grounds or in public interest should not be interfered with unless
there are strong and compelling grounds rendering the transfer order improper
and un- justifiable. In the present case we find no such grounds.
On the
contrary, as discussed above, the respondent remained at 445 Agartala for most
of the period. In the facts and circumstances stated above the claim of the
respondent No. 1 for choice posting cannot be accepted and for that reason the
impugned order of the tribunal could not be sustained.
In the
result the appeal succeeds and is hereby allowed.
The
impugned order of the tribunal dated 25.IA994 is set aside and the application
filed by the respondent No. 1 before the tribunal is dismissed but without any
order as to costs.
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