LAL JI RAZDAN Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE two petitions raise a common question and we propose to decide them by one common judgment.

(2.) IN writ petition No. 87, the petitioner Lal Ji Razdan was a Sanitary Inspector working under the Srinagar Municipality which having been superseded some time before was in charge of the administrator. By order No. 127 -68/64 of 1964 dated 26th September 1264, the services of the petitioner were transferred to the notified area at Akhnur while holding his lien on his own post. Subsequently, however, this order was modified by an order No, 136 -LS/64 dated 7 -10 -1964, whereby the petitioner was transferred to Bij Behara notified area. In petition No. 102, the petitioner Sardar Pritam Singh who was an employee of the Jammu Municipality was transferred from the Jammu Municipality to the notified area in Banihal. The point involved in both the cases is as to whether or not, the respondents were competent to transfer the employees to such an area which fell beyond the jurisdiction of the Municipalities.

(3.) APPEARING for petitioners, Mr. Sharma contended that under the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, the Municipalities of Jammu and Srinagar are corporate bodies and their powers and duties are clearly defined by the Act. There is no provision in the Act. which empowers the Government to transfer the services of the employees of a particular municipality to some other notified area. In this connection, our attention was drawn particularly to section 18 of the Act which runs as follows : -