The Delhi High Court has refused to interfere with a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) decision and questioned West Bengal on dealing with the request of inter-cadre transfer to other states sought by the officer of All India Service (AIS).
A Bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice Talwant Singh dismissed the West Bengal appeal against the Central Administrative Tribunal order dated July 22, this year and said that they are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order. “We may note that the petitioner has trotted out shortage of officers as the reason for rejecting the request of respondent no.1 (officer) qua inter-cadre transfer, without placing the relevant material on record, “ the court said. “We are noticing that, this approach has been taken, in the matter after matter, by the petitioner (West Bengal) where officer (s) have sought inter-cadre transfer to other state (s) on account of their marriage, and which has been refused on a similar ground,” the court said. “Unless the reasons set out in the order of refusal for inter-cadre transfer are backed by relevant material, it cannot pass the muster of this Court. In any event, the tribunal has given another opportunity to the petitioner to pass a fresh order, as indicated above. Therefore, we find no merit in the writ petition, at least, at this juncture,” the court said. The officer has sought the inter-cadre transfer on account of the fact that, her spouse, who is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of 2012 batch, was posted in Uttarakhand cadre. The request of respondent officer was rejected by West Bengal.