Bikash Kumar Patar and 18 Ors v. The Union of India and 3 Ors

ORDER 02-08-2023 Heard Mr. I. Rafique, learned counsel for the petitioners and Ms. B. Sarma, learned Central Government Counsel for all the respondent Nos. 1 to 4.

¶2Petitioners 19 in numbers are serving under the Railway Protection Force as Head Page No.# 5/7 Constables and Constables at different places under North East Frontier Zone and have completed their tenures at their respective places of posting in said North East Frontier Zone.

¶3The Railway Board in the Ministry of Railways, Government of India vide No.2014/Sec(Spl)/6/12 dated 13.03.2023 issued Directive No.58 pertaining to Transfer of the Members of the Force specifying that all transfers of the Members of the Force shall be governed by the provisions laid down in Rules 90 to 93 RPF Rules, 1987 and the said policy was issued under Directive No.58.

¶4Clause C of said Directive No.58 issued on 13.03.2023 relates to "Periodical Transfers" and Clause xix of said Clause C provides 'the Process of Annual Transfers' which reads as follows:-

(xix) The process of annual transfers: All annual periodical transfers shall be processed in the month of January every calendar year and completed on or before 15th of March or before end of the local Academic sessions, whichever is earlier; so as the Officers & Staff so affected could get sufficient time to plan for settling of their families and admissions of their wards, as the case may be.

¶5Clause xxix of Clause C of said Directive No. 58 issued on 13.03.2023 reads as follows:-

(xxix) The entire process of periodical transfers including sparing and joining of the members of the Force at the transferred place, shall invariably be completed on or before 31st March of every calendar year. Thus for all the persons having joined their new places of postings on or before 31st June, the deemed date of start of their tenure shall be 31st March only. In all other cases, the tenure shall be counted commencing from 31st March of the next calendar year.

¶6The petitioners submitted that though as per the requirement of Clause C-xix, noted above, the annual periodical transfer is required to be processed in the month of January every calendar year and should be completed on or before 15th of March, or before the end of the local Academic session, whichever is earlier, so that the officers and staff so affected could get sufficient time to plan for settling of their families and admissions of their wards, as the case may be.

¶7It is stated by the petitioners that by the Force Order No.24/2023 and Force Order No.26/2023 both dated 21.07.2023 issued by the Principal Chief Security Commissioner, Northeast Frontier Railway transferring the petitioners from their respective places of postings Page No.# 6/7 in the midst of academic session of their children are in violation of the provisions of Clause C-xix of said Directive No. 58 dated 13.03.2023.

¶8Petitioners stated that their children are students ranging from Class-I to Class-XII in different Schools in their respective places of posting.

¶9Hence, this writ petition by the petitioners praying for setting aside and to quash the impugned orders of their transfer vide Force Order No.24/2023 and Force Order No.26/2023 both dated 21.07.2023 issued by the Principal Chief Security Commissioner, Northeast Frontier Railway.

¶10It is also placed before the Court that the Inspector of Railway Protection Force, NF Railway, Guwahati by communication No.GPF/E-3/2023 dated 24.07.2023 spared the petitioner No.1, Bikash Kumar Patar at Srl. No. 10 in the Force Order No.26/2023 transferring him from Guwahati-Lumding Division to Katihar Division directing him to report before the authority concerned in his new place of posting at Katihar on or before 04.08.2023.

¶11The petitioners relied on a decision of the Hon'ble Orissa High Court dated 14.07.2023 passed in WP(C) No. 22069/2023 (Tapan Kumar Parida Vs. Director General, Railway Protection Force, New Delhi and others) preferred by a similarly placed RPF personnel Tapan Kumar Parida against an order of his transfer dated 12.07.2023 following the provisions of Clause xix of the Directive No.58.

¶12During the deliberation of the matter, Ms. B. Sarma, learned Central Government Counsel, placed before the Court a communication of the Railway Board, Ministry of Railways, Government of India under No.2023/Sec(E)/TR-3/54(IRT) dated 31.07.2023 issued by the Deputy Inspector General (Establishment), Railway Board communicated to all the Principal Chief Security Commissioner/RPF All Zonal Railways of India pertaining to the said Directive No.58 issued on 13.03.2023, noted above clarifying that the Railway Board in the Ministry of Railways, Government of India have granted one time exemption for completion of periodical transfer of Railway Protection Force Personnel till 31st July, 2023 in place of 30th June, 2023 for the present financial year of 2022-2023 and that the date of start of their tenure shall be deemed to be from 31st March, 2024 only for the purpose of tenure transfer which has the approval of the Director General of Railway Protection Force. Page No.# 7/7

¶13In view of such one time exemption issued by the said communication dated

31.07.2023 by the Railway Board, the prayer of the petitioners made in this writ petition has become infructuous as their tenure on such transfer issued under Force Order Nos. 24/2023 and 26/2023 dated 21.07.2023 shall now be deemed to be from 31st of March, 2024.

¶14Accordingly, this writ petition being infructuous, stands dismissed.

¶15Copy of the communication dated 31.07.2023 issued by the Deputy Inspector General (Establishment), Railway Board, placed before the Court today by Ms. B. Sarma, learned Central Government Counsel, be kept as part of the record. JUDGE Comparing Assistant

PageoNo.#o1/7 GAHC010167712023 ooooooo ooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooTHEoGAUHATIoHIGHoCOURTo (HIGHoCOURToOFoASSAM,oNAGALAND,oMIZORAMoANDoARUNACHALoPRADESH)o CaseoNo.o:oWP(C)/4405/2023o BIKASHoKUMARoPATARoANDo18oORS.o S/O-oLATEoRATNESWARoPATAR,oR/O-oRUPAHIoBORI,oP.O.oDIGHALoBORI,o DIST.-oMORIGAON,oASSAM,oPIN-o782105. 2:oASHIMoAICH oS/O-oGOPALoAICH oR/O-oSANTIRoBAZAR oSOUTHoTRIPURA oSTATE-oTRIPURA. 3:oANUPoKUMARoDEY oS/O-oSRIoNARENoBARUAH oR/O-oSOUTHoHILLoCOLONY oLUMDING oASSAM 4:oNARAYANoGHOSH oS/O-oBHAJENDRAoGHOSH oR/O-oVILL.-oJHOOPONoPOOLoROAD oLUMDING oASSAM 5:oSUBHASHoBARMAN oS/O-oLATEoPRABHAoRAMoBARMAN oR/O-oNALBARI oP.S.oNALBARI oPIN-o781337. 6:oSATYABRATAoGOSWAMI oS/O-oPURNENDAoGOSWAMI oR/O-oHAREKHOLA oP.O.oKAMALPUR oDIST.oDHALAI oTRIPURA. PageoNo.#o2/7 7:oAJIToPASHI oS/O-oPANNALALoPASHI oR/O-oVILL.-oADAMTILLA oP.O.oKALKALIGHAT oDIST.oKARIMGANJ oASSAM 8:oBHARAToCH.oDAS oS/O-oLATEoBISHAYoRAMoDAS oR/O-oVILL.-oTOKRADIA oP.O.oTOKRADIA oDIST.oKAMRUP oASSAM oPIN-o781102. 9:oARABINDAoSONOWAL oS/O-oSINGHESWARoSONOWAL oR/O-oBORBARIoGAON oP.O.oEKARANI oDIST.JORHAT oASSAM oPIN-o785631. 10:oBROJENoBARUAH oS/O-oSHRIoRAMENoBARUAH oR/O-oDHAKIAJULI oDIST.oJORHAT oASSAM oPIN-o785009. 11:oRAJIBoMEDHIo@oRAJIBoKR.oMEDHI oS/O-oLATEoKAMALESWARoMEDHI oR/O-oPUBoTUPAKUCHI oRAHA oNAGAON oASSAM 12:oSARBESWARoDAS oS/O-oLATEoSONESWARoDAS oR/O-oMALABARI oP.S.oKHETRI oDIST.oKAMRUP(M) oPIN-o782403 oASSAM 13:oBABULoDAS oS/O-oRUPoRAMoDAS PageoNo.#o3/7 oR/O-oNEWoBONGAIGAON oB.G.oCOLONY oRLYoQTRoNO.o156/C oP.O.oNEWoBONGAIGAON oDIST.oBONGAIGAON oASSAM 14:oR.oZONUNoSANGA oS/O-oLATEoR.oLALHMUAoKALIANA oR/O-oVAIRENGTE oDIST.oKOLASIB oMIZORAM oPIN-o796101. 15:oLITONoNAMA oS/O-oLALMOHONoNAMA oR/O-oRAGBER oP.O.oKALAMoCHOWRA oDIST.oSEPAHJIJALA oPIN-o794102 oTRIPURA. 16:oSEROZOoNARO oS/O-oPUSIINEoNARO oR/O-oVILL.-oDZIIHA P.O.oANDoP.S.oCHOZUBA oDIST.oPHEK oNAGALAND oPIN-o79104. 17:oKAUSHIKoRANJANoBHUYAN oS/O-oKANUoRANJANoBHUYAN oR/O-oGOVINDAoBHAWAN oHOUSEoNO.o29 oW/NO.o22 oLUTMA oP.O.oVINOBANAGAR oGUWAHATI-781018. 18:oAKoSURCHANDUoSINGH oS/O-oAKoNIMAIoSINGH oR/O-oTHOUBAL oDIST.oTHOUBAL oMANIPUR. 19:oMD.oDAWLAToKHAN oS/O-oIBOCHAoKHAN oR/O-oSANGAIYUMPHAM Page No.# 4/7 P.O. WANGHING DIST. TIWAT MANIPUR PIN- 295148 VERSUS THE UNION OF INDIA AND 3 ORS TO BE REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS, RAIL BHAVAN, RAISINA ROAD, NEW DELHI, PIN- 110001. 2:THE DIG (ESTABLISHMENT) RAILWAY BOARD RAIL BHAVAN RAISINA ROAD NEW DELHI-110001. 3:THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF RAILWAY PROTECTION FORCE RAIL BHAVAN RAISINA ROAD NEW DELHI PIN- 110001. 4:THE PRINCIPAL CHIEF SECURITY COMMISSIONER NORTHEAST FRONTIER RAILWAY MALIGAON GUWAHATI-781011 ASSA Advocate for the Petitioner : MR I RAFIQUE Advocate for the Respondent : DY.S.G.I. BEFORE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANASH RANJAN PATHAK