ANIL PANDURANG PARKHE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by a judgment and order dated 28 November 2021 passed by the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (for short "the Tribunal") whereby on an original application as filed by respondent no.3, the petitioner's transfer from Nashik to Pune stands upset. The tribunal has set aside the impugned transfer order whereby respondent No.3 was sought to be mid-tenure transferred from the post held by him at Pune.

(2.) The narrative of events leading to the litigation needs to be noted. Respondent no.3- Gopinath Saheba Kolekar filed Original Application No.530 of 2020 before the tribunal challenging an order dated 30 September 2020, transferring him mid tenure, from the post of Joint District Registrar, Class-I, Pune, to the post of Assistant Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Desk-7, Pune. Prior to the said posting at Pune, respondent no.3 was posted at Aurangabad. By an order dated 31 May 2018, he was transferred at Pune as Joint District Registrar, Class I, Pune City. It is thus not in dispute that respondent no.3 had not completed a term of three years at Pune so that he could be transferred from his current posting and that too mid-term. The reason being that Section 3 of the Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act,2005 (for short 'the Transfer Act') provides that in the normal course unless an employee completes a tenure of three years on a posting, he should not be transferred.

(3.) However by the impugned transfer order dated 30 September 2020, respondent No.3 was sought to be transferred mid-term and/or mid-tenure invoking Section 4(4) (ii) and Section 4(5) of the Transfer Act. The petitioner who admittedly was not due for transfer, was posted on his request on the vacancy which had arisen on the transfer of respondent no.3. As the transfer of respondent no.3 was made invoking Section 4(4) (ii) and Section 4(5) of the Transfer Act, the same are required to be noted, which reads thus:-