The High Court refused to accept the Act, allowing the government to make transfers on other grounds. archive
Jagran correspondent, Nainital. The High Court has refused to accept the classification of government schools as accessible and inaccessible through the circular issued in 2018 after the Annual Transfer Act-2017. However, the Court has said that government departments are free to transfer any employee from one place to another on other grounds. The single bench of Justice Rakesh Thapliyal has passed this important decision while hearing the petitions of government teacher Anju and others.
The court held that the order issued by the High Court on April 9 last year was very clear, under which the government was allowed to make transfers under certain conditions, including longer tenure, which the government could examine on the basis of time spent in plain areas like Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani, Rudrapur, Ramnagar and Kotdwar. It was argued that the Act appeared to be arbitrary in the matter of classification of accessible and inaccessible areas.
Sugam and Durgam have not actually been defined in the entire Act and for this, three committees have been formed under Appendix One, Two and Three. The state government had issued a circular on March 19, 2018, setting out criteria for identifying accessible and inaccessible places.
In the last hearing, the Education Department Secretary himself told the court that the department was facing difficulty in classifying the places and a large number of government officials were being appointed only for this purpose.
High Court raised questions on classification
Nainital: The court has said in its decision that Uttarakhand state was formed separately from Uttar Pradesh because it was surrounded by hills. Situated in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain range, the state has international borders with China (Tibet) in the north and Nepal in the east. Most of the 13 districts are in hilly areas, now the question is what is the justification for such classification.
When the matter was heard on February 13 last year, Chief Standing Counsel Chandrashekhar Rawat had clearly said that there were instances where two institutions are located in the same village, same place and in the same Gram Sabha, but they have been classified as accessible and inaccessible. The court said that it is very strange that two types of institutions at one place have been divided into accessible and inaccessible areas, which makes it clear that the work done by government institutions and departments is completely useless.
The petitioner's counsel said that the transfer order of nine pharmacists was issued by the Director Health in June, which was a blatant violation of the order passed by the High Court in February, in which the order prevented the transfer of any employee on the basis of classification of accessible and inaccessible. The court said that the concerned officers should be told not to misinterpret the court's stay order and they will have to follow it in letter and spirit. The High Court warned that if there is any violation, it would be considered a very serious matter and this Court will not hesitate to initiate contempt proceedings against the officials concerned.
The Court further said that whether transfer can be done on the basis of classification of accessible and inaccessible, there is no doubt that this law has been made by the legislature, but there is some deficiency in this law.
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