HC rejects claim of forest official on demotion

Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 12: High Court rejected the claim of petitioner that transferring him from one place to another would amount to demote him from his post.
Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Sanjeev Kumar while dismissing the appeal of one Abdul Rashid Shah holding the post as In-charge Range Officer, said the appellant is actually holding the post of forester and was made in-charge by his superior and not by Government as such has no right to hold the post of interim arrangement when he has been transferred from the said post.
“We do not find any substance in the submission as well. The appellant does not have any vested right to stay as In-charge Range Officer, Veshu Range, and once he is transferred, it is none of his business as to how the post, from where he has been transferred, is filled up by the respondents”, DB recorded while dismissing plea of appellant-Shah.
Court said, the order challenged before writ court is an order of transfer simplicitor passed by the authority in the interest of administration and the appellant has no vested right to stay as In-charge, Range Officer, Veshu Range for all times to come or even till he attains superannuation.
“Simply because the appellant is attaining superannuation in the year 2019 would not be a ground to challenge an order of transfer issued by the competent authority in the interest of administration”, reads the judgment.
DB rejected the plea of the appellant that the order of transfer has the effect of demoting him, and said the argument is misconceived as rightly held by the writ court, the appellant is substantively holding the post of forester and was only placed as In-charge Range Officer, that too, not by the competent authority, i.e. the Government, but by the Chief Conservator of Forests (Central). “Court further said that viewed from any angle; there is no merit in the appeal. The same is accordingly dismissed”, DB concluded.

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