Employee Cannot Insist On Transfer To A Particular Place; It's For Employer To Decide: Supreme Court

The observations were made by the division bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose while dismissing the special leave petition assailing Allahabad High Court's order of refusing to interfere with the petitioner's representation that rejected transfer to another college.

"It is not for the employee to insist on transferring 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," the bench had observed.

Senior Advocate Parvez Bashista had appeared for the petitioner Namrata Verma and Advocate Sanjay Kumar Tyagi had appeared for the State of UP.

Case Before Allahabad High Court

The petitioner was working as a Lecturer (Psychology) at Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya, Amroha and was represented for her transfer to a Post Graduate College, Noida. Her representation was rejected on September 14, 2017, which the petitioner challenged before the High Court.

The petitioner's counsel had submitted that she was working at Amroha for the last 4 years and was therefore entitled for a transfer under the Government policy.

Taking note of the impugned order which reflected that the petitioner had remained posted at Rajkiya Post Graduate College, Noida from the date of her initial appointment 18.12.2000 to 11.08.2013 i.e. for about 13 years and therefore, her request posting her again at the same institution was not justified, the division bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Irshad Ali said that it didn't find merit in the petitioner's contention to disturb the order rejecting the representation.

While dismissing the writ the High Court observed that,

"The petitioner is not entitled to be posted at the place where she has already worked at a stretch for about 13 years. In case the petitioner has completed a requisite number of years at the place of her present posting, he may request for her transfer to some other place but not to the place where she has already worked for 13 years."

Case Title: Namrata Verma v State of UP

Citation : LL 2021 SC 444