Court No. - 30
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 13749 of 2019 Petitioner :- Pankaj Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Atul Kumar Srivastava,Chandra Prakash Kushwaha Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Vivek Kumar Birla,J.
Heard Smt. Sangeeta w/o Pankaj Kumar-the petitioner, in person as the lawyers are abstaining from work.
In view of the abstention of the lawyers from work learned Standing Counsel is also not present in the Court although notices have been received by the office of the Standing Counsel for all the respondents.
Present petition has been filed seeking direction to the respondent no. 3 not to compel the petitioner to join the office of the Assistant Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Fatehpur until the necessary security arrangement is made by him for security of Central Storehouse / Depot, Minor Irrigation Department, Mahoba. Further prayer has been made seeking direction to the respondent nos. 3 and 4 to authorize any employee to take charge of Central Storehouse / Depot, Minor Irrigation Department, Mahoba from the petitioner before relieving.
Brief fact of the case is that the petitioner Pankaj Kumar was transferred from the post of Junior Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Mahoba to district Bahraich on the same post vide transfer order dated 14.6.2019 passed by the Chief Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Lucknow-respondent no. 2 herein. This order was modified vide order dated 28.6.2019, whereby the place of transfer was changed from district Bahraich to district Fatehpur. Vide order dated 24.8.2019 passed by the respondent no. 3-Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Mahoba the petitioner was relieved from district Mahoba for joining in the office of Assistant Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Fatehpur.
A perusal of the order dated 24.8.2019 (Annexure-5 to the petition) clearly indicates that a copy of the said relieving order was passed by the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department with a request that the petitioner after joining at the place of transfer may be relieved for a period of 15 days for the purpose of handing over charge. It appears that on the same date the petitioner filed a representation dated 24.8.2019 (Annexure-6 to the petition) that he was given additional charge of Central Storehouse / Depot and once he is relieved from Mahoba there will be no one to look after the Central Storehouse / Depot of the Minor Irrigation Department and there will be possibility of theft and other incident may likely happen.
Smt. Sangeeta wife of the petitioner submitted that the petitioner could not himself come to argue the matter, therefore, she is present before this Court. She submits that under such circumstances the petitioner cannot be compelled to join in the office of Assistant Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department till necessary arrangement is made by the respondent nos. 3 and 4 for security of Central Storehouse, Minor Irrigation Department.
I have considered the submissions and have perused the record.
On perusal of record I find that the petitioner is posted at Mahoba since January 2010 i.e. for last more than nine and half years Annexure-2 to the petition is the office order dated 29.11.2016, whereby the petitioner was given additional charge of Central Storehouse / Depot, Minor Irrigation Department, Mahoba. There is no averment in the petition that this additional charge was of permanent nature. On the contrary it appears that he was given additional charge for which he was not entitled for any additional allowance etc. It is also not clear whether this additional charge is still continuing. At least this is not reflected from any record available on the petition. Be that as it may, from perusal of this order dated 24.8.2019 (Annexure-5 to the petition) I find that the copy of the relieving order has been marked to the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department, Prayagraj that the petitioner be relieved for 15 days for handing over of charge of Mahoba. This order was passed on 24.8.2019 and 15 days time is not yet over. It may also be noted that whether transfer order dated 14.6.2019 passed on exigency of work / administrative reason was modified on 28.6.2019 but relieving order was passed after about two months although paragraph 2 of the transfer order dated 14.6.2019 provide that he should be relieved by 25.6.2019 i.e. within 10 days without waiting for the replacement.
Under such circumstances, the facts as exists on record I do not find any good ground to give relief as prayed for. On the contrary I find that this prayer made in the petition appears to be an attempt to somehow circumvent the transfer order and stay at Mahoba.
The petition is devoid of merits and is accordingly dismissed.
The petitioner, however, is at liberty to raise his grievances before the authority concerned while completing the formality of handing over of the charge.
With the aforesaid observations, present petition stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 30.8.2019 Lalit Shukla