Meghalaya High Court: In a civil writ petition filed by an employee (‘petitioner’) in the Military Engineer Services against her transfer order on the grounds that she has two minor children, the Division Bench of Sanjib Banerjee*, CJ. And W. Diengdoh, J., dismissed the petition and said that there was no merit in the petition and no cogent grounds to resist the order of transfer were made out.
In the matter at hand, the petitioner who is an employee in the Military Engineer Services, was resisting her transfer order on the grounds that she is a mother of two minor children aged about 6 and 4. The petitioner’s case was that she had a plea before the employer against her transfer order since her husband travelled regularly as a part of his service and that once the children will be about 8 and 6, after a period of two years, the petitioner would be more confident to leave them behind and accept any posting that may be offered as a part of her transfer in the service.
The Court said that it did not appear from the rules governing the petitioner’s service that there was any latitude given to an employee for resisting transfer on the ground of being the mother of minor children. Further, the Court said that in the impugned order dated 12-05-2023, the Central Administrative Tribunal took the relevant considerations into account and had relied on several Supreme Court judgments that instructs that routine transfers which are necessary for administrative purposes should not be interfered with by the Courts. The Court also said that indeed, it is only in a rare case where malice in fact is made out and serious prejudice is demonstrated, then the Court entertains a plea to arrest or impede a transfer.
Thus, the Court said that since the petitioner had made out no cogent grounds to resist the order of transfer and the petitioner was always aware that her job was transferable, there was no merit in the petition. Therefore, the Court dismissed the petition.
[Reena Sohphoh v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine Megh 333, decided on: 03-07-2023]
*Judgment Authored by: Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Senior Advocate K. Paul, Advocate S. Thapa, Advocate R. Dutta, Advocate S. Chanda;
For the Respondents: Deputy Solicitor General of India N. Mozika, Advocate A. Pradhan.
