S C AWASTHI Vs. NATIONAL WATER DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY way of present writ petition, petitioner has challenged the order dated 17. 05. 2007 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, delhi by which O. A. No. 839/2007 of the petitioner seeking setting aside of transfer order dated 13. 04. 2007, transferring him from New Delhi to bhubaneshwar, has been dismissed.

(2.) BRIEFLY, the facts leading to the filing of the present petition are as under: petitioner joined respondent no. 1, National Water Development agency (NWDA) as an Assistant Engineer and was posted at Nagpur in the year 1985. After completion of one year of service, he was transferred to the office of Chief Engineer (N), Bhubaneshwar in the year 1986. In the year 1989 he was transferred to Gwalior. On 1st December, 1993, he was transferred to Delhi on promotion as Deputy Director. Since then he has been working at Delhi. Petitioner has alleged that for the past few years he has been subjected to hostile discrimination by some senior officers of respondent no. 1. Petitioner has also alleged that his application for the post of Deputy Chief Engineer in wapco was not forwarded through proper channel deliberately with malafide intentions. Petitioner has alleged that he made representation for consideration of his candidature for promotion to the post of Superintendent engineer on ad-hoc basis but the same was not considered intentionally. His annual increment was also withheld without any reason. His representation for promotion was not considered. Petitioner has alleged that Sh. N. K. Bhandari, chief Engineer of respondent no. 1 has got him transferred from Headquarters to bhubaneshwar by making false complaints against him and thereafter got issued a show cause notice dated 26. 04. 2007 to him wherein false and frivolous allegations are made against him. Petitioner gave reply dated 07. 05. 2007 to the same which was not considered. Petitioner has further alleged that his son who is 16 years of age is undergoing treatment for cancer at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Petitioner is the only eldest male member of his family and has responsibility of taking his son to the hospital for treatment. It is alleged that the senior officers of the respondent no. 1, despite being aware of the difficulties faced by the petitioner have transferred him in order to harass him. Petitioner has alleged that medical bills pertaining to treatment of his son have not been cleared and are still pending. After receiving the transfer order dated 13. 04. 2007, petitioner made representation to respondent no. 1 on 16. 04. 2007 but no reply was received. Left with no option he filed OA in Tribunal for quashing of transfer order dated 13. 04. 2007. The Tribunal dismissed the same without considering the grievances of the petitioner. Aggrieved with the same, present petition is filed.

(3.) RESPONDENTS have opposed the petition by filing counter affidavit through Sh. A. D. Chawla, Director (Admn.) Respondent no. 1 is a society under ministry of Water Resources Society's Act 1860. Its headquarters are at Delhi and field offices are located at various places across India. The offices of nwda are also opened, closed and shifted from one place to another as per requirement of work. It is stated that transfer order is passed strictly due to exigencies of work and after following the guidelines framed for transfer of its officers and staff. It is stated that respondent No. 1, as a general practice and as per its guidelines, obtains options for transfer of employees who have completed 5 years of stay at a particular place. The options are considered on the basis of vacancy position at the desired place and request of staff at different stations. For the year 2007, a letter was circulated on 2nd/3rd Jan, 2007 inviting options for transfer from employees/officers and it was also made clear that in case employees do not submit their choice of place of transfer, they will be transferred to places where vacancies will be available. The petitioner had been continuously posted at Headquarters in New Delhi since 1993 did not submit his option for transfer. The petitioner alongwith two other officers, namely, Sh. R. K. Kharbanda and Sh. Afroz Alam, who were also longest stayees at delhi have been transferred as per exigencies of work in the field offices of the respondent no. 1. The other two officers have already joined at the respective place of posting. It is further stated that son of petitioner was under treatment at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital from 2004-05. All the medical bills are cleared as per rules. It is denied that petitioner is transferred due to mala fide intention of sh. N. K. Bhandari or senior officers as is alleged. It is stated that respondent no. 1 has been allotted a Project Report work of "ken-Betwa River" by the Ministry of Water Resources which is to be completed in a time bound manner without any additional staff. In order to complete the above said project, petitioner is transferred to Bhubaneshwar.