NIRMALJIT KAUR,J. - (1.) All the above mentioned writ petitions shall stand disposed of by this common order as the grounds, on which the transfer orders are challenged, are identical and all the petitioners are working as Physical Training Instructor - Grade-III. For convenience, the facts are being taken from S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 11224/2016.
(2.) While praying for setting aside the impugned transfer order, learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the appointment order of the petitioner as Physical Training Instructor (P.T.I.) - Grade-III was issued by the District Education Officer, Secondary Education, Sri Ganganagar. The order granting selection scale in the case of similarly situated P.T.I. Grade-III was also issued by the District Education Officer, Secondary Education (for short "D.E.O. Secondary Education" hereinafter). However, the order of transfer dated 18.07.2016 has been passed qua the petitioner by the District Education Officer, Elementary Education, Sri Ganganagar and therefore, said order is without jurisdiction. Reply has been filed.
(3.) As per the reply, the order under challenge is, in fact, a posting order from one place to another while implementing the staffing pattern brought in force by way of Circular dated 21.04.2016. The validity of the said circular has been upheld by the Division Bench of this Court in D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 7900/2016 (Pooja Rani and others v. State and others) decided on 16.08.2016. In pursuance to the said circular, the State Government merged the primary and upper primary schools in the nearby secondary/higher secondary schools in order to provide the quality education to the students and in order to have more effective administrative control over the employees of primary and upper primary schools. While granting them this posting order, the petitioners were called for counseling and during the said counseling, their choice of posting was taken into consideration. Secondly, in pursuance to the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution, the Elementary Education was handed over to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The affairs of the Panchayati Raj Institutions are regulated by the duly constituted District Establishment Committee in each district. The D.E.O., Elementary is one of the members of this committee. The D.E.O. Elementary has only carried out the directions of the District Establishment Committee. Hence, the orders are in accordance with law. Thirdly, even as per the Notification dated 02.10.2010, the Panchayati Raj Department was the cadre controlling authority as well as the transferring authority. The order of posting was duly recommended by the District Establishment Committee. Accordingly, no fault can be found with the orders of transfer passed by the D.E.O. Elementary Education on the recommendation of the District Establishment Committee. It was further contended that the argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the District Education Officer, Elementary Education (for short "D.E.O. Elementary Education" hereinafter) is not competent to pass the order of transfer is misplaced as a counseling committee was constituted for implementation of staffing pattern brought in force by way of Circular dated 21.04.2016 and the decision taken in the meeting of the counseling committee was approved by the District Establishment Committee of the Zila Parishad. The following members constituted the District Establishment Committee :- 1. District Education Officer, Secondary Education 2. District Education Officer, Elementary Education 3. Chief Executive Officer, Zila Parishad;