Patna High Court: Anjana Mishra, J. allowed a civil writ application challenging the Memo No. 2164 dated 18-10-2019 issued by the Additional Chief Secretary of Labour Resources Department, Bihar, Patna.
In the instant case the petitioners, twelve in number, who were Instructor and Group Instructor in I.T.I., were transferred and posted at different places by Annexures 2 and 3 dated 30-06-2019 in Memo No. 1426 and 1427. The petitioners joined their duties at their new places of posting as indicated. The authorities again amended the order of transfer vide Memo No. 2164 dated 18-10-2019 (Annexure-1) by which they declared the previous order of transfer void and again transferred the petitioners to a new place.
The counsel for the petitioner, Rajeev Kumar Singh and Priya Ranjan Singh submitted that the second Annexure was illegal, arbitrary and irrational as an order of transfer was already passed and carried out and it couldn’t have been changed. They further submitted that the counter affidavit filed by the respondent in evasive and inconclusive and does not answer any irregularities which have been pointed out by the court hence the petitioners should be allowed to continue on their respective places of posting.
The counsel for the respondents Vipin Kumar Singh submitted that the transfer had to be done taking in consideration that the petitioners had continued in their place of posting for more than five years and according to their administrative policies it was necessary to revise the transfer order and send the petitioners to other places.
The Court, placing reliance on Jyotsna Kumari v. State of Bihar, 2000 SCC OnLine Pat 156 and Mahmood Azam Siddique v. State of Bihar, 2000 SCC OnLine Pat 30 where it was held that “in the matter of transfer, once notification is acted upon, nothing subsists and the notification of transfer becomes redundant for all purposes” and thus “….the order of transfer having become redundant, the question of rescinding such order does not arise”.
In view of the above, it was held that the transfer order vide Annexure-1 was against the principle of law and should be set aside. Hence the court quashed the impugned memo passed by Additional Chief Secretary and directed the petitioners to continue in their place of posting via Annexure-5. [Ashok Kumar Choudhary v. State of Bihar, 2020 SCC OnLine Pat 76, decided on 16-01-2020]
