Transfers driven by 'outsiders' against public policy: HC

The Himachal Pradesh High Court today ruled that the transfer of public servants at the behest of those who had no role in government amounted to a violation of norms and was a practice which needed to be thoroughly discouraged.
"Transfer at the instance of a person, who has no role to play in the government, will not only be extraneous, but also against public policy," HC said as it passed its orders on the petitions of four employees and quashed their transfer orders.
Disposing of the four petitions filed by three Public Works Department staffers and another from the State Electricity Board, a division bench of Chief Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Kuldip Singh said that the "transfers are not sustainable (but) arbitrary and vitiated because the same were issued under dictation".

The petitioners had challenged their transfer orders saying that the same were driven by political considerations.
"In order to curb this tendency and inspire confidence among the general public and more particularly among the employees, it is necessary that no one should get the impression that an employee can be transferred at the instance of a person who has no concern with the government," HC said.
The court ruled that the petitioners had all been transferred outside Dharampur in Mandi district upon directions issued at the instance of Chandershekhar.

On the basis of the material on record, it can be safely inferred that the three petitioners have been transferred outside Dharampur just on the requests of Chandershekhar, the court said.

It may be recalled that Chandershekhar had lost the Assembly elections from Dharampur on a Congress ticket in December 2012.
Petitioner Sanjay Kumar had slammed his transfer order as "political manipulation and not in the public interest".
In a supplementary affidavit filed on June 16, 2013, Kumar alleged that about 400 transfers had been made at the Congress leader's instance.
"It is unfathomable that such a large number of transfers could be made at the instance of a person who is not in the government, nor a people's representative as such.
"Issuing transfer orders at the instance of an outsider... cannot be a coincidence, but a concerted effort of the duty holders," HC said.