MAHIPAL SINGH RATHOR Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the petitioners in the above bunch of writ petitions are teachers working in different Government Schools in the State of Uttarakhand. These teachers belong to various grades of schools. Some of them are teachers in primary schools or upper primary schools.

(2.) Although in some of the writ petitions, the vires of the Transfer Rules has also been challenged, with a prayer that the Transfer Rules, 2013 itself be declared unconstitutional, yet in majority of the writ petitions what is under challenge is the system of "grading" and the "points" given to both schools and to its teachers who are teaching in such schools, which has formed the basis of these transfers. The petitioners while challenging these grading contained in Rule 4 of the Transfer Rules, 2013 have called it arbitrary, illegal, irrational and illogical.

(3.) It is an admitted position that prior to Transfer Rules framed in 2013, the transfer of teachers in the State of Uttarakhand was being made on the basis of policies formulated in terms of Government Orders, which were being issued from time to time. There were no rules governing transfer of such teachers. In fact, to put it plainly, the transfer being an incidence of service in public employment and it being such an essential component of the whole system of Government service, there need not be specific rules governing transfer or giving powers to the authority or even elaborating who would become liable for transfer and when and where! The parameters which govern service and transfer of teachers are already there in Fundamental Rule 15 which reads as under :