PRAMOD KUMAR MOHANTY Vs. U O I

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are officers in the State Bank of India, described by the learned counsel for petitioners as a statutory bank. They are governed by the State Bank of India Officers Service Rules. They are liable to be transferred from one branch to another or from one station to another. Rule 47 of the State of Bank of India Officers Service Rules (in short, the 'Service Rules') provides for the same. It reads:

(2.) In the present writ petition, the petitioners challenge their transfer from the offices in which they were working for more than three years. In support of their challenge, they contend that the transfers were the result of the prejudice caused in the minds of the bank in view of their request to opt under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. It was the result of an administrative suspicion created in the minds of those in charge of the bank about those who had opted under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme to quit and the feeling that they should be eased out of sensitive position or positions in which they would have access to strategic information relating to the bank and its customers. The transfers were really actuated by mala fides since th petitioners approached this Court challenging the refusal to accept their option to retire under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. It is also contended that the orders of transfer were clearly discriminatory since other officers who had put in more than three years in the concerned stations or offices, are being retained. The petitioners have annexed a list of such officers coming under Bhubaneswar Circle as Annexure-4. According to the petitioners, there are many others allowed to work merely on the ground that they are Office bearers of some Union recognised by the bank. It is contended that the Union leaders and the officers of the bank have been retained and the petitioners have been transferred and this action of the bank would amount to hostile discrimination. It is also pointed out that to a question put in the Rajya Sabha as to whether the office bearers of the Officers' Associations in nationalised banks are exempt from the general transfer policy, the answer of the Minister was to the effect that as per the Government guidelines, office bearers of the Officers' Association in the nationalised banks, are not exempted from the general transfer policy of the Bank and they are to be treated at par with others in the matter of postings and transfers. The concerned answer of the Minister is marked Annexure-3. Thus, the petitioners plead that in any event, transferring them out while retaining others similarly situated in the same station beyond the period prescribed by the norms and in violation of Rule 47 of the Service Rules, was bad in law and their transfers should be quashed on the ground that it is discriminatory.

(3.) The learned counsel for the State Bank of India submitted that all officers are liable for transfer and it cannot be said that in the case of the petitioners, discrimination was practised. Annexure-A to the counter affidavit suggesting that in Circle Level, five of the office bearers ought to be exempted from normal transfer policy of officers, is relied on. It is further contended that the petitioners were not eligible for retirement under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme and hence their requests were turned down. There was no mala fides in the transfers. They are not being victimised because they have approached this Court challenging the refusal to accept their requests for retirement under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. The bank was willing to transfer all the officers who have completed more than three years in any station, office or place irrespective of whether that officer is an office bearer or not. It was conceded that Rule 47 of the Service Rules was clearly applicable to the office bearers of the Union as well. There existed no real basis for Annexure-A or the exception made therein especially in the context of the answer given by the Minister in the Rajya Sabha to the question put in that behalf.