Srinagar, Nov 22: The High Court Monday held that the government had the power to transfer any employee anytime even during probation.
Upholding its single judge’s order dismissing a plea of some IRP constables against their transfer during probation, a Division Bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magray and Justice Sanjay Dhar said, “We do not find any illegality or perversity in the judgment passed by the Single Bench as would warrant its interference from this court.”
The constables contended that they had been appointed under the Jammu and Kashmir Special Recruitment Rules of 2015 and that they could not be transferred during the period of five-year probation under SRO 202.
Citing Rule 8 (2) of the Rules of 2015, the constables contended, “An appointee should have to necessarily work for five years on the post against which he or she has been appointed and that such an appointee should not be eligible for transfer for whatsoever reason during the temporary service of five years.”
The Single Judge Bench had dismissed their plea with its observation that the government was not barred in any manner whatsoever to pass the order of transfer to an appointee appointed under the Rules of 2015 even before the completion of the five-year probation period of the appointee.
“Rule 8 (2) of the Rules of 2015 places restriction on the appointee for not seeking a transfer within the first five years of service that is during the probation period, and does not take away any power of the employer or the government to transfer such an employee even before the completion of five years of probation period,” the Single Bench had said.
“Rule 8 (2) of the Rules of 2015 does not, in any manner whatsoever, put a bar on the government to pass the order of transfer to an appointee appointed under the Rules of 2015 even before the completion of five years of initial service or probation period of the appointee,” the DB said.
The court said that any provision of the rule provided in these Rules of 2015 could not be interpreted in isolation or conflict with the mandate of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control, and Appeal) Rules, 1956, but had to be construed conjointly with the scope of the Rules of 1956.
“Rule 27 of the Rules of 1956 empowers the government to transfer an employee from one place to another in the now Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on the post born on his or her cadre,” the court said.