UNION OF INDIA Vs. JAYSHREE GOVINDRAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above writ petition has been filed by the Union of India, represented by its Principal Director (Staff), Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, challenging the order passed in O.A. No. 396 of 2006 dated 24.7.2006. The first respondent herein is the applicant before the Tribunal.

(2.) The applicant filed O.A. No. 396 of 2006, for declaring the order passed by the third and fourth respondents dated 10.5.2006, insofar as the transfer of the applicant from Metropolitan Transport Project (Railways), Chennai, to workshop and stores, Golden Rock, Trichy, as being illegal, contrary to the Circular dated 17.11.1987, a colourable exercise of power, discriminatory, arbitrary, mala fide and violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and for a consequential relief to re-post the applicant at Chennai as senior Auditor with all consequential benefits.

(3.) The relevant service particulars of the applicant are that, the applicant joined the service in the Office of the Accountant General at Hyderabad in the year 1982 and thereafter on her request, she was transferred to the Metropolitan Transport Project Audit Office (MTP) during December 2003 and had been working in that Office when she was transferred to Trichy by the impugned order dated 10.5.2006. The applicant contended before the Tribunal that the order of transfer is contrary to Circular dated 17.11.1987, issued by the first petitioner herein. According to the Circular, no staff should normally be kept in the same wing for a period exceeding five years and rotation to another group within a shorter period or retention in a particular group beyond five years be allowed only in exceptional circumstance and with the specific order of the Accountant General/Director of Audit concerned. It is the case of the applicant that her case is not an exceptional one for rotation or transfer within five years and the transfer is not in public interest.