R.K. SHRIVASTAVA Vs. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard on admission. Petitioner takes exception to order dated 26.4.2016 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur Bench, Jabalpur in Original Application No. 200/00900/2015; whereby for the reasons stated therein the Tribunal has vacated the ad interim stay order dated 12.10.2015. The reasons find mention in paragraphs 5 and 6:

(2.) The aforesaid reasons, as further borne out from the order, finds its support from the order passed by the Division Bench of the Tribunal in O.A. No. 200/00476/2015 decided on 15.1.2016. Though it is contended on behalf of the petitioner that the Tribunal has fallen into patent error in recording a finding that the petitioner has not made out a case of mala fide or malice; however, when the aforesaid finding is tested on the anvil of the averment made in the original application as well as in rejoinder, the findings arrived at by the Tribunal cannot be faulted with. Further contention of the petitioner in paragraph 3 of the rejoinder wherein it is stated that the respondent No.6 has sought request transfer to Bombay and to accommodate him the applicant has been transferred from Jabalpur has also not been substantiated by the petitioner by filing any material cogent document. A balled statement made bythe petitioner by way of rejoinder cannot be accepted to be correct. Even otherwise since it is not the petitioner alone who has been transferred by impugned order dated 21.9.2015, it cannot be said that the petitioner has been maliciously singled out for transfer. Along with petitioner, other similarly situated personnels are transferred in administrative exigency.

(3.) Further contention that the transfer of the petitioner is contrary to the provisions stipulated in clause (xxvi) of the guidelines dated 31.12.2013 is also of no avail to the petitioner as the said clause stipulates that "while effecting transfers, a person with longest continuous stay at the station hall ordinarily be transferred first". Thus, it is not mandatory for the authorities concerned to transfer the seniormost person at the station as the exceptions have been noted by the Division Bench of the Tribunal who passed the order in O.A. No. 200/00476/2015; wherein while dwelling upon the aspect whether senior is to be transferred first, the Division Bench observed: