RAVI PRAKASH GUPTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Cm No.6914 of 2020 Prayer in this application is for placing on record written arguments of the petitioner. Application is allowed subject to just exceptions. Written arguments are taken on record. CWP No.7857 of 2020 Challenge in this appeal is to the order dated 03.06.2020 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, Chandigarh (hereinafter referred to as 'CAT') in OA No.060/00302/2020 vide which the Original Application filed by the petitioner challenging the order of transfer dated 18.05.2020 (Annexure P-5) from the post of Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad, to the post of Director, Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute for Fiscal Management, on the ground of discrimination and violation of Rule 7 of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as '1954 Cadre Rules'), has been dismissed.

(2.) Briefly the facts are that the petitioner, an IAS Officer, who is 100% visually impaired, was initially allocated to Chhattisgarh State and as per the guidelines issued by the Government of India for cadre transfer for persons with disabilities, he was transferred to Haryana cadre vide Notification dated 21.10.2015. Petitioner expressed his willingness for field posting keeping in view the career progression of an IAS Officer as according to the Government of India instructions conveyed from time to time, an IAS Officer with three years' or two years' of combined field experience in the posts listed in the annexure, are only eligible for consideration to the central deputation at the level of Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary respectively. Since the petitioner did not have the requisite field experience on the posts referred to in the annexure which are the field posts, he had been making representations to the respondents for such posting. He had been asserting that all his batch mates had worked/handled the posts of Deputy Commissioner, Haryana, but he had been discriminated against. Considering his representation dated 05.04.2016 for posting him as Deputy Commissioner, the same was accepted and the petitioner was assigned the post of Deputy Commissioner, Kaithal, vide order dated 25.04.2016. Hardly had 6-1/2 months been passed that a transfer order dated 12.11.2016 was issued posting the petitioner in the headquarters as Director, Foods and Supplies, Haryana, Special Secretary to Government of Haryana, Foods and Supplies Department and Managing Director, CONFED, in violation of Rule 7 (3) read with Rule 3 of the IAS (Cadre) Amendment Rules, 2014 read with Notification dated 13.04.2016. Subsequent orders of posting were also passed but none of it was a field posting.

(3.) Petitioner ultimately challenged the order dated 12.11.2016 passed by the respondents by filing OA No.60/1289 of 2017 in the CAT, Chandigarh Bench, whereby the petitioner had been transferred from the post of Deputy Commissioner, Kaithal. This original application preferred by the petitioner was dismissed by the CAT on 28.05.2018 resulting in challenge of this order in CWP No.16460 of 2018 titled as Ravi Prakash Gupta Versus Union of India and others. Even during the pendency of the writ petition, another transfer order dated 22.10.2018 was passed. A Division Bench of this Court vide order dated 05.12.2018, allowed the said writ petition by setting aside the order dated 28.05.2018 passed by the CAT and setting aside all the transfer orders, which have been passed by the respondents i.e. 07.11.2016, 03.01.2017, 22.08.2017 as also the order dated 22.10.2018, which was passed during the pendency of the writ petition. Direction was also issued to State of Haryana through Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana, to consider the case of the petitioner for posting him in the field strictly in accordance with law within a period of three weeks from the date of the order dated 05.12.2018. Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.5463 of 2019 preferred by the State of Haryana was dismissed by the Supreme Court vide order dated 06.08.2019, however, four months' time was granted to the State of Haryana to comply with the order passed by the High Court in accordance with the Rules. In compliance with the said order, petitioner was posted as Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad, vide order dated 28.12.2019.