ASHOK KUMAR GUPTA Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Under challenge in this petition is the order dated 5 th March, 2019 (as amended by corrigendum dated 6.3.2019) passed by the Special Secretary, Higher Education and Commissioner, College Education Government of Rajasthan, whereby the petitioner posted as Professor in ABST subject has been (2 of 8) [CW-7838/2019] transferred from Government Commerce College, Kota to Government Girls College, Pali. Aggrieved of the order dated 5 th March 2019 and relieving order dated 6th March, 2019, the petitioner appealed before the Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal. By the impugned order dated 16 th April, 2019, the Tribunal dismissed the appeal. Hence this petition.

(2.) Mr. Prakhar Gupta for Dr. VB Sharma, AAG, appearing for the respondents at the outset submits that most grounds agitated in this petition are identical to those agitated in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 7837/2019 titled Narayan Lal Gupta Versus State of Rajasthan and a connected matter (SBCWP No.7837/2019). The only ground additionally agitated in the present petitions is that the petitioner is a Ph.D. guide under whom 5 students at the Govt. College, Ajmer are pursuing their Ph.D and that his wife, also in government service, is posted at Kota for reason of which as per Government policy he should be continued to be posted at Kota. Mr.Prakhar Gupta submitted that, however that the facts pleaded (4 of 8) [CW-7838/2019] cannot have relevance to impugning the petitioner's transfer order as he has been posted in Kota for the past 8 years. It has been submitted that in the circumstance the posting of the petitioner's wife at Kota cannot be a reason for him to perpetually be posted at the same station despite a compelling reason in public interest / administrative exigency for his transfer to Government Girls College, Pali on a vacant post where against the 4 sanctioned posts of Professors (ABST) only one is posted and 3 posts are vacant. Mr. Prakhar Gupta submitted that this petition be accordingly decided in the light of the order passed in the case of S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 7837/2019 titled Narayan Lal Gupta Versus State of Rajasthan and the connected matter on the issue of no malafide or breach of statutory rules being made out and that the mere posting of the petitioner's wife at Kota by itself was not being a shackle on the discretion to transfer him in public interest/ administrative exigency. Mr. Prakhar Gupta further submitted that a transfer policy is even otherwise a mere guidance and not iron clad. He submitted where good reason obtains for a (5 of 8) [CW-7838/2019] deviation, as it does in the instant case, it cannot furnish a ground for interference by the Court in the exercise of its equitable extraordinary discretionary jurisdiction.

(3.) In view of the submissions made by counsel for the parties, this writ petition is also dismissed as no ground of mala fide/ breach of statutory rule or egregious unjustifiable deviation from the transfer policy is made out. A transfer policy is only a guidance. It is not iron clad. No doubt the petitioner's wife is posted at Kota. But that fact by itself cannot be a foreclosure of the respondent State's discretion to consider the fact that the petitioner was posted at Kota for eight years and the administrative exigency of 3 out of 4 vacant posts of Professor (6 of 8) [CW-7838/2019] (ABST) at the College in Pali as also the public interest of providing students at Government Girls College, Pali with an additional Professor on one of the three vacant post in the subject of ABST. Further there is nothing on record to hold that a guide with registered Ph. D. students cannot be transferred despite having held a post for about 8 years. The petition is thus liable to be dismissed. It is so.