Maharshtra government to pay Rs 25,000 for transfer

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government’s decision to transfer a senior government official mid-term on the basis of a letter by a local MLA has proved costly. The Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal recently quashed the transfer order and ordered it to pay Rs 25,000 to the officer as costs.
"The circumstances in which the transfer was moved and has been ordered exhibits patent and blatant arbitrariness," said MAT chairman, Justice A H Joshi, adding that "the government is showing an attitude of total lack of sensitivity towards its statutory and constitutional obligations."
The tribunal was hearing an application filed by Madhukar Waghmare, who was working as an executive engineer (a Class I officer) in the public works department in Sangli.The state served him a transfer order on December 15, 2014, telling him to take up his new post at the Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation in Worli.
Waghmare said he had put in only one out of his three years at the post. A mid-term transfer can be ordered only for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances. Waghmare claimed that the transfer was ordered on the basis of a complaint by MLA Suresh Khade, to accommodate another officer. The MLA had complained that the officer had not commenced various projects in the area despite their inauguration.
A report from the superintending engineer said 17 projects had been completed, 50 were in progress, while five were at the stage of tendering.
"On the basis of facts, which are as bright as daylight, one does not need any device to identify that the office note on which the decision to transfer Waghmare is reached does not contain even a single reason much less reasons and grounds on which the special reason or exceptional circumstances are to be based," said the tribunal. It also pointed out that the report in fact "refutes and nullifies the substance contained in the legislator’s written complaint".
The tribunal said that the transfer order was "made in colourable exercise of power", and told the government to allow Waghmare to resume his post in Miraj.