NORTH EASTERN ELECTRIC POWER CORP. LTD Vs. PORESH KUMAR NATH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal is directed against an order of May 12, 2022 by which the first respondent's writ petition challenging his order of transfer has been allowed and the order of transfer dated November 26, 2021 has been set aside.

(2.) At the outset it must be observed that for a successful challenge to an order of transfer, an extraordinary case has to be made out and unless the high tests are met, the employer's authority to transfer an employee cannot be interfered with. Even if the transfer is in breach of Serial No. 01 Supplementary List the applicable guidelines, once it appears to the Court that the employer applied its mind and took a conscious decision for administrative exigencies, the Court would be slow to intervene unless a case of manifest arbitrariness or patent unfairness is clearly established.

(3.) Three grounds are evident from the judgment and order impugned, in justification of what impelled the writ court to interfere. The writ court perceived that there was no administrative reason for the employer to have transferred the first respondent herein from his Guwahati posting to Arunachal Pradesh. Further, the writ court took notice of the fact that the writ petitioner had indulged in trade union activities despite being an officer and this earned him the wrath of his seniors. Finally, the writ court found that there was no urgent need to justify the transfer order of November 26, 2021 to move the writ petitioner out of an assignment on which he had been sent to Mawsynram only earlier in November, 2021.