SUJATA DEO Vs. B N MANDAL UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals and many other appeals arose out of orders passed by a learned single Judge whereby prayers made by the writ petitioners, who are Registration Clerks, to quash the orders of transfer transferring them from one district to another had been dismissed. A Division Bench, while considering the appeals, prima facie, opined that the writ petitioners were district cadre employees and as such could not be transferred from one district to another. The Division Bench noticed that a Division Bench of this Court in LPA no. 3032 of 2000 dismissed the appeal arising out of the order dismissing the writ petition filed by a similarly situated writ petitioner. In those circumstances, the Division Bench referred the matter to a larger Bench for the purpose of determination whether the appellants belong to district cadre and, accordingly, could not be transferred out of the district.

(2.) RULE 12 of the Bihar Service Code, containing Rules made under proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution, provides that cadre means the strength of the service or a part of a service sanctioned as a separate unit. In order to show that the Registration Clerks of different Districts were sanctioned as a separate unit the appellants relied upon Rules 23, 23A, 25 and 37 of Chapter -IV of the Bihar Registration Manual, containing various instructions and orders issued by the Government of the then province of Bihar, which dealt with establishment, transfer, appointment and service book. There is no dispute that in 1951 those instructions and orders became Rules made under Proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution.

(3.) HOWEVER , Rule 23 does not sanction the strength of the service or part thereof as a separate unit. It only provides that establishment for the district should be determined on the basis mentioned therein, supplemented by one additional Clerk for every one thousand searches or for every six subordinate offices. In other words, it only directs what volume of work would justify the appointments in the District Registration Office. The said Rule alone does not indicate sanctioning of the strength of the service as a separate Unit.