Uttarakhand High Court
WPSB/436/2022 on 2 August, 2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND
AT NAINITAL
THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SRI VIPIN SANGHI
AND
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH CHANDRA KHULBE
WRIT PETITION (S/B) NO. 436 OF 2022
2nd AUGUST, 2022
Between:
Govardhan Singh ...... Petitioner
and
State of Uttarakhand & another ...... Respondents
Counsel for the petitioner : Mr. Sanjay Bhatt, learned counsel
Counsel for the respondents : Mr. S.S. Chauhan, learned Deputy
Advocate General for the State of
Uttarakhand / respondent Nos. 1
and 2
The Court made the following:
JUDGMENT: (per Hon'ble The Chief Justice Sri Vipin Sanghi)
The petitioner has preferred the present writ
petition to assail the Office Order dated 25.07.2022,
whereby he has been transferred to Minor Irrigation
Division, Chamoli, on the vacant post of Executive
Engineer with immediate effect in public interest.
2) The petitioner is presently serving as
Executive Engineer at Minor Irrigation Division, Nainital,
2
since 25.09.2019. Prior to joining the said post, he has
served as Assistant Engineer at Haldwani.
3) The grievance raised by the petitioner, in the
present petition, is that he has been posted to an
inaccessible area, even though he had rendered,
according to him, 23 years in inaccessible areas during
the course of his service. The petitioner claims that he
was exempted from being posted in a remote or
inaccessible area by virtue of Section 7(d)(ii) of the
Uttarakhand Annual Transfer for Public Servants Act,
2017 (for brevity hereinafter referred to as 'the Act')
since he has done more than 10 years of service in
remote areas.
4) On the last date, counsel for the respondents
has sought an adjournment to take instructions whether
Chamoli is considered as a remote or accessible area.
Today, he stated that Chamoli is, indeed, considered as
an inaccessible area. His submission, however, is that
the petitioner has done 17 years of service in remote
area, and not 23 years, as claimed by him. Even if this
submission of learned counsel for the respondents were
to be accepted that the petitioner has served for 17
years in remote areas, and not 23 years, the situation
3
does not change, inasmuch as, the petitioner is
exempted from being posted to remote area by virtue of
Section 7(d)(ii) of the Act, which reads as follows:
"7. There shall be following kind of Annual
transfer, namely : -
(a) ...
(b) ...
(c) ...
(d) The employees under following categories
shall exempted from compulsory transfer from
accessible area to remote area; namely :-
(i) ...
(ii) Such employees who have already
completed minimum 10 years service in
remote areas, and;"
5) Merely, because the petitioner has
continuously served in accessible area for the last 07
years, it does not follow that the exemption provided
under Section 7(d)(ii) of the Act, would not be
available to him. The petitioner has rendered service
in remote areas in the earlier part of his carrier, and
the respondent cannot grudge the fact that he has
been serving in accessible area for the past 07
years. It is not that the petitioner has been posted
4
to Chamoli on account of any disciplinary proceedings
pending against him, or as a matter of disciplinary
action.
6) We, therefore, allow this petition, and quash
the transfer of the petitioner by the impugned order
dated 25.07.2022.
Stay Application (IA No. 01 of 2022) also
stands disposed of.
________________
VIPIN SANGHI, C.J.
__________
R.C. Khulbe, J.
Dt: 02nd AUGUST, 2022
Negi
