Employee cannot insist on transfer to particular place: Supreme Court

Sept. 12: An employee cannot insist on a transfer to a particular place and it is for the employer to shift the staff considering the requirement. This was observed by the Supreme Court while dismissing a petition by a lecturer challenging a October 2017 order of the Allahabad High Court. The high court had dismissed her plea against the rejection of her representation by the authority concerned for transfer from Amroha to Gautam Buddha Nagar.

“It is not for the employee to insist to transfer 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, an apex court bench of justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said in its September 6 order.

In her petition filed in the high court, the woman, who was posted as a lecturer in Amroha district, had said that she had made a representation for her transfer to a college at Gautam Buddha Nagar and it was rejected in September 2017 by the authority. Her counsel had argued before the high court in 2017 that she was working at Amroha for the last four years and under the government policy, she was entitled to a transfer.

The high court had noted that the order passed by the authority concerned showed that she had remained posted at a college at Gautam Buddha Nagar for about 13 years from the date of her initial appointment in December 2000 to August 2013 and, therefore, her request for posting her again at the same institution was not justified.