New
Delhi:
An employee cannot insist on a transfer to a particular location and it is for
the employer to shift the staff based on the requirement, the Supreme Court has
said.
The
top court observed this while dismissing a petition by a lecturer challenging
an October 2017 order of the Allahabad High Court.
The
High Court had dismissed her plea against the rejection of her representation
by the authority concerned for transfer from Amroha to Gautam Buddha Nagar.
“It
is not for the employee to insist to transfer him/her and/or not to transfer
him/her at a particular place. It is for the employer to transfer an employee
considering the requirement,” a top court bench of justices MR Shah and
Aniruddha Bose said in its order.
In
her petition filed before the High Court, the woman, posted as a lecturer in
UP's Amroha district, had said that she had made a representation for her
transfer to a college in Gautam Buddha Nagar but it was rejected in September
2017 by the authority.
Her
counsel had argued before the High Court in 2017 that she was working at Amroha
for four years and under the government policy, she was entitled to a transfer.
The
High Court had noted that the order passed by the authority concerned showed
that she had remained posted at a college at Gautam Buddha Nagar for about 13
years from the date of her initial appointment in December 2000 to August 2013
and, therefore, her request for posting her again at the same institution was
not justified.
In
its order, the high court had said the petitioner was not entitled to be posted
in a place where she had already worked at a stretch of about 13 years.
The
High Court had said that in case the petitioner has completed the requisite
number of years at the place of her present posting, she may request for
transfer to some other place but not to a place where she had already worked
for 13 years.
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