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1973 (9) TMI 108

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..... ndia. Clause (v) of the terms and conditions also laid down that he will be subjected to such other conditions of service and rules of conduct as may be prescribed from time to time and made applicable to him. In due course the petitioner was confirmed as UDC and declared permanent w.e.f December 29, 1967. In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 309 of the Constitution of India, the President of India by his order dated October 18, 1964 framed Rules known as Directorate of Extension (Class III and Class IV Posts) Recruitment, Rules, 1964 (hereinafter to be called 1964 Rules). The post of UDC is shown as Class III, Ministerial (Non-Gazetted). It is not disputed that the petitioner is governed by these Rules. The President in exercise of the powers under Article 309 has also framed Rules called. The Regional Stations for Conducting Demonstration of Forage Produce (Class III and Class IV Posts) Recruitment Rules, 1968, (hereinafter called the 1968 Rules). Though the grade of the L.D.C under the 1964 Rules and 1968 Rules is the same namely 110-180 the scale of the UDC under 1964 Rules is 130-300 while under 1968 Rules is 130-280. U.D.C post is filled up by promotion from L.D.C w .....

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..... n the strength of a service or a part of a service sanctioned as separate unit. It is not the respondents' case that the transfer of the petitioner to the Regional Station is a transfer on foreign service as indeed it could not be under F.R 9(7) read with F.R 110 and therefore that aspect should not detain me. Mr. Chadha sought to justify the transfer under the F.R 15 which according to him gave to the Government unrestricted power to transfer a government servant anywhere. 4. F.R 15(a) reads as under:- The President may transfer a Government servant from one post to another provided that except: (1) on account of inefficiency or misbehaviour of (2) on his written request a Government servant shall not be transferred substantively to or except in a case covered by Rule 49, appointed to officiate in a post carrying less pay than the pay of the permanent post on which he holds a lien, or would hold a lien had his lien not been suspended under Rule 14. 5. The argument is that as the President had the blanket power to transfer servant from one post to another it necessarily implies the power to transfer even outside the cadre. Now F.R 15 does not in terms authorise t .....

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..... elligence did not form part of the cadre of the Customs and Central Excise Department, and therefore the transfer was illegal. This plea was negatived by Division Bench of this court which held that the post of Director of Revenue Intelligence and Inspection including the post of Director of Revenue intelligence was not an ex-cadre post in the sense that it was outside the ordinary range of transferability for an officer of Indian Cutoms and Central Excise Service Class I, and that the department of Revenue consisting of the three branches of the Income-tax, Customs, and Central Excise and the Chemical Service, Class I is itself a service or a cadre functioning as one department, and that the post of Director of Revenue Intelligence belongs to one unit of this department. Referring to F.R 15 and the interpretation to be given to it the bench observed as:- We have therefore, to construe the authority of the Government to transfer a Government servant neither too widely as to do injustice to the Government servant concerned nor too narrowly as to fetter the administration of the government, but precisely to meet the object and the work for which the petitioner was appointed and t .....

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..... post is transferred in an officiating capacity to any other post outside the cadre. This rule is not at all dealing with the question of the power to transfer outside the cadre. It assumes that there has been a valid order of transfer outside the cadre and in such a case enables the President to suspend the lien. The power to transfer outside the cadre is not and cannot be found in F.R 14, which is dealing with a situation subsequent to the time when a government servant has been transferred outside the cadre. The reliance on F.R 14 is therefore of no effect. Reliance is then placed on F.R 11 which states that whole time of a government servant is at the disposal of the government which pays him and he may be employed in any manner required by proper authority and clause (iv) of the appointment letter which provides that the petitioner should be prepared to serve anywhere in India. I do not think that condition in appointment letter can be invoked to show that the petitioner was liable to be transferred outside the cadre. All that condition means is that if within the cadre the petitioner is sent to a post outside Delhi, he will have to comply with the order in terms of the appoint .....

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..... allowance shall be paid. Para 2 of the said memo gives power to the Administrative Ministry to sanction the deputation on the terms specified in respect of their employees. As a result of review the President was pleased to decide that the grant of deputation allowance to Central Government employees who go on transfer on deputation/foreign service to ex-cadre posts will be regulated as laid down in G.I, M.F, O.M No. 10(24)-E.III(B)/60, dated the 27th January, 1970. 9. It will thus be seen that in cases where the Government servant is transferred to ex-cadre post he is considered on deputation with the result that he is entitled to deputation allowance as per the various orders of Government of India. If the contention of Mr. Chadha was correct that the Government was entitled under F. Rules 15 to transfer any Government servant from any post to a post even outside the cadre (of course carrying the same pay) it is not understood why such elaborate rules and principles should have been made by the President providing the circumstances and the manner of paying the deputation (duty) allowance upto 20 per cent of the employees basic pay when a Government servant is transferred to an .....

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..... The conclusion is therefore, irresistible that the impugned order of transfer dated 23rd November 1970 by Which the petitioner has been transferred from the Directorate of Extension, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, New Delhi to the office of Regional Station on Forage Production, Dhamrod, P.O Hathuran, District Surat, is unauthorised and without any support from law or rule hence unsustainable. 10. The petitioner had also alleged that his transfer was because of victimisation and also because he was an office bearer (Branch Secretary) of Association of Attached and Subordinate Offices. This has been strenuously denied in the return, where it is maintained that the transfer was made without any mala fide intention or by way of punishment or as act of victimisation as he was an office bearer of the Association. It is maintained that the order of the transfer of the petitioner has been made in exigency of service. Mr. Chadha in support of his assertion that it was a routine transfer placed some record before me. I find that in one of the letter dated September 26, 1970, written by Under Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture it has been mentioned that it had been decided to post the .....

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