SANJAY KUMAR SONKAR AND 7 ORS ; KULDEEP MANI TRIPATHI AND 10 ORS Vs. STATE OF U P THRU PRIN SECY DEPTT OF MEDICAL & HEALTH &ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri R.K. Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Chandan Agarwal, learned counsel for the respondents No. 2 to 4 and learned standing counsel for the State.

(2.) This writ petition has been filed to challenge the order dated 24.10.2017 passed by the respondent No. 3 - Director (Personnel, Management & Administration), by which the petitioner, who is Junior Engineer with the Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nagam Ltd. has been transferred from Electricity Distribution Division, Hapur to the office of Chief Engineer, Saharanpur.

(3.) The transfer has been assailed on three grounds. First, it has been submitted that the petitioner was posted on transfer at Hapur in the year 2015 and that under the transfer policy of the respondent corporation, he should not have been transferred again before completion of his term of three years. In this regard it has been further stated that other employees, some of whom have served for more than five years at Hapur have not been transferred. Second, it has been submitted that in view of the office memo dated 210.2017, the petitioner being an office bearer too district Secretary of the Union, he could not have been transferred within two years of his assuming office as secretary of the said Union, except in exceptional circumstances. According to the petitioner, no such circumstance exists in his case. Last, it has been submitted that the transfer order has been made contrary to the transfer policy as approved by the Supreme Court in Public Interest Litigation No. 79 of 1997.