A division bench of the Supreme Court observed that government employees cannot insist on transfer or non-transfer to particular locations, and that the decision of transfer rests solely on the employer, based on the requirement of the organisation.
The bench consisted of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose, who made the observation while dismissing a special leave petition filed against the Allahabad High Court’s order refusing to interfere with a petitioner’s representation that rejected transfer to another college on September 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court’s bench observed in the order that it is not up to the employee to insist on a transfer to a particular location or try to get a transfer revoked. It is a choice or decision that is entirely for the employer to make, as per the requirements at the time.
The Court was hearing a case filed before Allahabad High Court, where a lecturer posted at Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya
in Amroha district had said that she made a representation to get a transfer to a government college in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Noida, which was rejected by the authority in September 2017.
Her counsel had observed that the teacher was working in Amroha for four years and was entitled to a transfer under government policy. The Allahabad High Court, however, had observed that since the petitioner had already worked at the Rajkiya Post Graduate College, Noida, for about 13 years since her initial appointment, her request was not justified. The HC further observed that she may request for a transfer to some other place in the state after completing her requisite for transfer, but not somewhere she had already worked for 13 years.
