KAMNI VERMA Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three petitions being connected together, we are disposing of the same by a common judgment.

(2.) The petitioner in Writ Petition (S/B) No. 416 of 2016 was the Principal of a government inter college by the name Government Girls Inter College, Kashipur. Petitioners in other two writ petitions are working as teachers in the said College. The subject matter of the controversy in these cases is the decision taken by the Authority to transfer the petitioners on administrative ground. The power to make such transfer is located in Rule 10 of the Uttarakhand Teachers (School Education) First Appointment, Promotion and Transfer Posting Rules, 2011. The translation of the relevant provision reads as follows:

(3.) Under the Rules, the transfers are of four categories. Administrative ground is one out of the four. In order to make an administrative transfer, it is permitted, if there is a complaint and if the complaint is enquired into and verified. Originally, the petitioners were actually transferred by the District Magistrate. The petitioners challenged the said order of the District Magistrate. In the case of the petitioner in Writ Petition (S/B) No. 416 of 2016 (whom we hereinafter refer to as the Principal), a Bench of this Court interfered with the order of transfer finding that the District Magistrate is not competent to order the transfer, even though the Court was of the view that there were materials to transfer her. It is thereupon that the orders, which have been impugned in these writ petitions, have been passed by not the District Magistrate, but by the competent Authority.