K S SRIVASTAVA Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are employed in Civil Defence offices in the various cities of this State. They are paid employees of the Civil Defence office. They are working as head clerks, routine grade clerks, typists, storemen, etc. They are aggrieved by an order of their transfer from the original place of posting to a Civil Defence office in another city. The order of transfer was passed by the Director of Civil Defence, Lucknow. The Director of Civil Defence acted under R. 4 (3) of the U. P. Civil Defence (Ministerial Staff) Service Rules, 1982.

(2.) Though the order of transfer has in the writ petitions been challenged on a variety of grounds, Sri Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, at the hearing confined his attack to only one ground. He submitted that the petitioners in matters of condition of service like transfer are under the control of the Central Government. They are. in substance, Central Government employees. The Government of Uttar Pradesh had no jurisdiction to frame rules under Art. 309 of the Constitution to govern the service conditions of the employees of the civil defence office. The petitioners are governed by the Civil Defence Act No. 27 of 1968 which is an enactment by Parliament. The conditions of service of the petitioners are by S. 9 (2) (b) of that Act to be governed by regulations made by the Central Government.

(3.) The case of the State Government is that the petitioners are not members of the Civil Defence Corps which is contemplated by the Civil Defence Act of 1968. They are not governed by the provisions of that Act. The State Government in order to maintain the Civil Defence Corps contemplated by the 1968 Act in an efficient manner has established Civil Defence offices in various important cities of the State and in order to facilitate their functioning they have employed certain categories of ministerial staff. These ministerial staff like clerks, stenographers, storemen, etc. were recruited and appointed by the State Government. Their conditions of service are governed by the U. P. Civil Defence (Ministerial Staff) Service Rules, 1982. Under it, the Director had power to transfer the members of the ministerial cadre from one Civil Defence unit to another.