RAFI AHMAD Vs. UNION OF INDIA, THROUGH THE SECRETARY, CENTRAL EXCISE & CUSTOM, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application arises out of an order of the appellate court which has affirmed the order of the trial court refusing to grant injunction, restraining the opposite parties from transferring the petitioner from Dalmianagar to Muzaffarpur. The impugned order of transfer was served on the petitioner only 11 months after he had been posted at Dalmianagar. The stand of the state is that the transfer is a result of a chain of the transfers effected for administrative reasons. Further , assertion of the State was that the petitioner had sought a short adjournment of his transfer on some domestic ground which was granted and, therefore, he really should have no objection to his transfer. Another person has been ordered to be posted in place of the petitioner. In my view the application deserves to be allowed, first because there seems to be no justification for a person to be transferred within eleven months of his posting at a particular place contrary to the well known norms and circulars. I am satisfied that the State has not been able to make out a case which would justify such a drastic action. The attitude of the petitioner in seeking adjournment, in my view, cannot act as an estoppel for seeking relief sought for by the petitioner, and lastly if it was a chain of transfers, then person intended to brought to Dalmianagar, could easily have been posted to Muzaffarpur where the petitioner has been ordered to be posted. I am constrained to observe that the State by its attitude has foisted litigation upon the petitioner who could have devoted his time to his duties instead of entering into a litigation with the authorities, in the trial court.

(2.) In the result the application is allowed and the opposite parties are injuncted from giving effect to the transfer order dated the 17th December, 1982 by which the petitioner has been ordered to be transferred to Muzaffarpur till the disposal of the suit. It is further directed that the opposite parties concerned will pay the salary along with the arrears to the petitioner by the 31st of August, 1983. Hearing fee is assessed at Rs, 25/ -.