ARUN R.S. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner filed O.A.No.245 of 2023 before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench seeking to direct respondent Nos.1 to 3 to extend his period of inter-cadre deputation for a further period of two years. The Tribunal as per the order dtd. 12/4/2024 dismissed the said application. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner filed this original petition under the provisions of Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The petitioner belongs to Indian Forest Service, Manipur Cadre. He was granted inter-cadre deputation to Kerala for a period of three years. He joined Kerala cadre on 26/6/2020. He applied for inter-cadre deputation on personal grounds, that his father was suffering from various ailments due to old-age and nobody else is there to look him after. Further reason urged is that his wife was doing her Ph.D. at Thiruvananthapuram and their children are aged 6 and 2 years. Citing the said reasons, the petitioner submitted application for extension of his deputation for a further prior of two years from 26/6/2023.

(3.) The petitioner submitted application for extension on 12/12/2022. Both the State of Kerala and State of Manipur gave no-objection for the extension of his inter-cadre deputation. However, the Government of India rejected the request of the petitioner for extension as per the letter dtd. 15/11/2022. The reasons stated is that the State Government did not state any cogent reason for extension of the deputation. Yet another reason stated is that the application for extension did not reach the Central Government before three months prior to the expiry of the period of deputation as stipulated in clause (g) in Annexure A8 guidelines.