Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 8
With just eight months to go before his retirement, a Punjab Government employee has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging his transfer.
He has claimed that his transfer was ordered about 10 months after his previous posting “ostensibly at the behest of the political dispensation of the state of Punjab”.
The petitioner-employee has alleged that the person he has swapped places with is the husband of Harjeet Kaur — an “elected councillor of Nagar Panchayat, Chamkaur Sahib, and very close to the present Chief Minister of Punjab”.
Taking up the matter, Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu of the High Court stayed the operation of the impugned order. The stay order will remain in force at least till February 10 next year, when the case comes up for resumed hearing.
The matter was brought to Justice Sindhu’s notice after petitioner Guriqbal Singh, working as a superintendent in Department of Cooperation, challenged his transfer from Ropar to Barnala on the ground that it was done “evidently in an arbitrary, mala fide and biased manner”.
His counsel Harsh Chopra contended on the petitioner’s behalf that the impugned transfer order dated October 1 was against the transfer policy of the Department of Personnel.
Appearing before the Bench, Chopra submitted that a complaint dated October 1 was made the basis for his transfer. He added it was a matter of record that the complaint was received by the quarter concerned on October 11. As such, the stand of respondents-state was absolutely unfounded.
Chopra added the court could interfere and set aside the transfer order as it “smacked of bias, arbitrariness, highhandedness and was also in violation of the transfer policy”.
Adjourning the hearing of the case, Justice Sindhu added the state counsel, faced with the situation, sought time to file a better affidavit.
‘Link’ to corridors of power
- Guriqbal Singh, a superintendent in the Department of Cooperation, was shifted from Ropar to Barnala in October
- He alleges that the person he has swapped places with is the husband of a councillor and close to the CM
Punjab and Haryana High Court stays employee's transfer over 'bias'
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