ASHLEY DERRICK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a Commander in the respondents Indian Navy, has filed this petition impugning the order dated 10th February, 2020 of his transfer from Goa to Kochi and seeking mandamus to the respondents Indian Navy to allow the petitioner to remain in Goa till his daughter completes her 11th and 12th standard from the same school and to consider the request of the petitioner for premature retirement from service, keeping in view his domestic compulsion.

(2.) The counsel for the respondents Indian Navy appears on advance notice and having prima facie not found any merit in the petition on going through the same, we have heard the counsel for the petitioner at length at this stage only.

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner, (i) that he was commissioned in the Indian Navy on 1st July, 1999 and trained as a helicopter pilot; (ii) in the year 2013, he was posted to Goa; (iii) he remained posted in Goa for 7 years, contrary to the normal tenure of three to five years, for reasons not attributable to the petitioner himself but on account of exigencies of the respondents Indian Navy; (iv) ultimately, vide impugned order dated 10th February, 2020, the petitioner was transferred to Kochi with effect from April, 2020; (v) that the petitioner was happy on being transferred to Kochi, being his hometown; (vi) that the petitioner has two daughters and one son and one of the daughters was to join Class XI and the petitioner requested the respondents Indian Navy to retain him in Kochi for two years, intending that his daughter would complete Class XII from Kochi; (vii) however the transfer order which was to come into effect in April, 2020 could not come into effect on account of the prevalent Covid-19 pandemic; (viii) the petitioner, in July, 2020 was informed that his reliever in Goa will report only in August, 2020; (ix) since the petitioner, on not being relieved from Goa, had admitted his daughter to Class XI in the school in Goa, the petitioner on 10th July, 2020, applied for cancellation of his transfer, which was rejected, and also applied for premature retirement with effect from 31st December, 2021; (x) that the reliever of the petitioner joined on 24th August, 2020 and vide movement order dated 28th October, 2020, the petitioner has been asked to proceed to Kochi; (xi) that the daughter of the petitioner is under stress, on account of instability of the transfer and is under treatment therefor; (xii) that if the petitioner is compelled to leave his daughter in Goa, she would suffer more; and, (xiii) that the daughter of the petitioner cannot join in Class XI in the school in Kochi at this stage.