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Kendriya Vidyalaya flayed for ignoring pleas for transfer

Special Correspondent

Employer must use discretion in transparent manner: court

CHENNAI: A teacher, who was transferred from a place on the ground of surplus staff, will have a right for re-transfer over the discretionary power conferred on the authorities and also over candidates who served in “hard places,” the Madras High Court has held.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice S.R. Singharavelu, dismissing a writ petition filed by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, said, “Only after accommodating the persons who were transferred from a place on the ground of surplus, would the question of considering the cases of others by the Commissioner under Rule 18(b) of the Transfer Guidelines arise.”

The matter relates to the transfer of V. Suresh Babu from the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Meenambakkam to Karaikudi within 18 months on the ground of surplus staff.

CAT order challenged

When his plea was not considered by the authorities concerned, he moved the Central Administrative Tribunal, which ruled in his favour.

The present appeal challenges the CAT order dated September 26, 2006.

In its order, the Bench said transfer was an incident of service and that a particular place was not the right of any employee. Though a discretion was always vested with the employer it “does not mean that the employer could give a deaf ear to the genuine grievances of the employees, since an employee unreasonably put to serve in odd conditions is susceptible to get bleak, being unable to deliver his best, thus impairing the very purpose of his transfer, viz. the best interest of society.”

It further said, “The employer is, therefore, expected to use his discretion always in a transparent manner, striking a balance between the interest of the public and also the employee, to the extent possible. If there are grounds to believe that such discretion has been used in a wrong manner rather than in a transparent manner, as is apparent in the case on hand, such an action of the employer, when proved to be wrong on being tested on the touchstone of reasonableness and fairness, is liable to be quashed to achieve the ultimate goal of justice.”

In this regard, the Bench pointed out that Mr. Babu was not transferred to the nearest vacancy, as required under the Transfer Guidelines, and that he was again transferred to another place just a day before the CAT passed orders on his application.

It also condemned the Kendriya Vidyalaya authorities for ignoring his representations for transfer “at the cost of their own transfer guidelines.”

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