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Sri Pubi Lombi vs. The State of Arunachal Pradesh & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 200Decided 13 Mar 2024
Not available
Justice J.K. Maheshwari · Justice Sanjay Karol

Background

A government school education officer (respondent no. 5 in the original writ petition) was transferred by an order dated 20 April 2023, which modified an earlier posting, after a Member of the Legislative Assembly wrote a note citing administrative exigency and public interest in posting the appellant to that position instead. The transferred officer challenged the order in the Gauhati High Court; the Single Judge upheld the transfer for lack of any malafide allegation, but the Division Bench reversed that decision, prompting the appellant (who benefited from the transfer) to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court restored the Single Judge's ruling, holding that transfer is a normal incident of government service and that the affected officer had never alleged bad faith by the transferring authority or any breach of a specific service rule, either before the High Court or the Supreme Court. Since the state government's counter-affidavit showed the competent authority had applied its own mind in issuing the order, even though it originated from an MLA's note, the Division Bench erred in setting aside a well-reasoned decision on unsubstantiated grounds. The Civil Appeal was allowed and the transfer order was restored.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not second-guess a routine government transfer decision unless there is a concrete, substantiated allegation of bad faith or a violation of specific rules: a transfer isn't automatically tainted just because it originated from a political representative's recommendation, if the competent authority actually exercised its own judgment.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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