KAMAL SINGH AND ORS Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the petitioners are deputationists at the office of District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) Mewat, who had earlier held permanent employment at the office of DRDA, Gurgaon. The transfer on deputation from Gurgaon to Mewat took place at the time when a new district was created in the State of Haryana, which was earlier a part of the Gurgaon District. The office order, which was issued on 07.06.2005 by the Additional Deputy Commissioner-cum-Chief Executive Officer read that the temporary transfers of the petitioners were made for the proper functioning of office in the newly created Mewat District. The orders of transfer specifically stated that the respective staff will be treated as on deputation to DRDA, Mewat but they shall not be entitled to any deputation allowance. By subsequent memorandum issued by the Financial Commissioner & Principal Secretary that the person working in DRDA, Mewat would continue until further orders.

(2.) The grievance of the petitioners was from amongst persons on deputation when orders were made cancelling the deputation of some persons on 28.03.2006 when the 8th petitioner was ordered to be transferred to DRDA Mewat in the place of one Balbir Singh, who was an Accountant at DRDA, Faridabad, who had been initially so deputed. Subsequently on 04.10.2007, deputation of another official was cancelled and reverted to his parent authority at Gurgaon. The attempt of the petitioners was to show that the deputations and transfers were done without any rationale and the respondents were merely adopting a pick and choose approach. Their grievance obtained a further dimension when certain of the officials at Gurgaon were made permanent and given promotions but the petitioners, who had been permanent officials and senior to the promoted staff were not even considered. The posts were rendered vacant by the petitioners' deputation were getting periodically filled up by direct appointments without affording to any of the petitioners their option for repatriation. It was at this time that the petitioners have sought for information under Right to Information Act through their application dated 14.09.2007 to elicit information about the promotions that had been offered to temporary employdes, who were juniors to the petitioners. The information that was received on 31.01.2008 (Annexure P-6) revealed the following:

(3.) Finding that the notices did not evoke their desired response, the writ petition has been filed with the prayer that the orders issued sending them on deputation from Gurgaon to Mewat without securing their consent to be bad in law and for issuance of a mandamus directing the official respondents No. 1 to 3 to forthwith repatriate the petitioners back to their parent department and consider their respective claims for promotion in accordance with the seniority. Respondents No. 1 to 3, who are the Financial Commissioner, Sepecial Secretary and the Deputy Commissioner at Gurgaon have filed the written statements. The Deputy Commissioner and the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon on the one hand and the Deputy Commissioner and the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mewat on the other hand have filed their respective separate statements. It is contended by the respondents that there is no scope for an assumption for the petitioners that they were permanent staff and it was a matter of policy that DRDA ought not to have any permanent staff. When the petitioners had been trasferred to Mewat, which was a part of the larger district of Gurgaon, their services had been assimilated in the area of Mewat itself, for the alternate situation that was emerged was the establishment could have dispensed with the services of the officials when a new District was formed. It is further contended that the Service Rules did not recognize to be at par with the Government except to the extent which was provided by the District Development Rural Agencies Service Rules, 2001. The aims of the agency were primarily to address the task of the rural development and to keep the interest of the employees subordinate to this "primary objective of alleviation of rural points" (sic). Although all the petitioners had been referred to as transferred and posted on deputation at the newly formed district at Mewat, they were actually serving in the same geographical area as they were working in the earlier larger district of Gurgaon. The respondents, therefore, sought to contend that the expression "deputation" itself had been used not in a technical sense but it should be understood as an expression in common parlance that they had been allwoed to continue with the working at the same place although in a different District, which was newly carved out from Gurgaon. The Rules themselves did not provide for any deputation in the legal sense and all the petitioners had been sent on transfer by the respondents, which was willingly accepted by the petitioners, which the respondents would attribute to the so-called perception of the transferees that they would get rapid promotions in the newly created district. The petitioners have not been transferred to any far-flung areas but they were retained in the same place of the erstwhile District to Haryana carved out from Gurgaon. By the constitution of a new district, they had to be adjusted at the same place although assigned to new district. Only the name of the district had been changed otherwise the petitioners had not gone through any particular disadvantage. The change of place and transfer of petitioners was the result of necessity and requirement as per the creation of a new district. The workforce from the existing district had to be picked up to run the administrative work in a new district and if a new district would not have been formed, it would have been perfectly possible that the petitioners would have been liable to be posted in the Mewat area being a part of the erstwhile Gurgaon district. The places where the petitioners had been posted were Nuh, Forozepur Jhirkha, Taoru and Punhana, which were earlier part of the Gurgaon District.