BHASKAR BIJOY DATTA Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. P. Roy Barman, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as Mr. N. Choudhury, learned Government Advocate appearing for the State-respondents.

(2.) In this petition, this court is to deal with the merits of transfer order of the petitioner whereby he has been transferred from the office of the Chief Engineer, Agriculture Department, Agartala to Rural Development Department, Santirbazaar Division.

(3.) The grievance of the petitioner is that, his daughter is a mentally retarded child having 75% disablement as certified by the District Disability Medical Board, Government of Tripura, Agartala (annexure 1 to the writ petition). Earlier, the petitioner was posted at Kanchanpur RD Block. At that time, he submitted a representation stating inter alia that his daughter was suffering from physical as well as mental weakness (Epilepsy disorder and late milestone) and she was under treatment of NIMHNS, Bangalore as well as Apollo Children's Hospital, Chennai and TIPS, Hapania. So, considering the health condition of the daughter of the petitioner, he was transferred on deputation to the office of the Chief Engineer, Agriculture Department at Agartala. Since his posting at Agartala, the petitioner has been serving the department sincerely and diligently. All on a sudden, the Principle Secretary, Government of Tripura issued an order dtd. 12/11/2018 whereby the petitioner was transferred and posted to RD Santirbazaar Division from his existing place of posting at Agartala. On receipt of the transfer order, he submitted a representation dtd. 15/11/2018 to consider his transfer order due to the illness of his daughter, as stated above. At the same time, the petitioner also emphasized on the office memorandum dtd. 15/2/1991 issued by the Government of India, which was adopted by the Government of Tripura vide memorandum dtd. 30/6/2001 wherein provision for preferential transfer/posting has been made for an employeeparent of a mentally retarded child keeping in view that facilities for medical help and education of such children may not be available at all places/stations. The said Memorandum further speaks about sympathetic consideration, in the event of any such requests made by an employee-parent of a mentally retarded child to the extent possible. On 28/11/2018, the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Tripura also requested the Chief Engineer, RD Department, Government of Tripura to sympathetically consider the case of the petitioner not only due to the mentally retarded child of the petitioner but also due to acute shortage of technical manpower in the department (Annexure 10 to the writ petition). However, the representation of the petitioner was turned down by the competent authority vide memorandum dtd. 15/2/2019 (Annexure 14 to the writ petition)