New Delhi, Oct 08: In a significant order, Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has held that the transfer of a government servant could not be said to be in normal course either in public interest or administrative exigency if it was based on extraneous consideration for achieving alien motives. "In absence of any administrative exigency and the proof to it, transfer is not sustainable in law," a CAT order said quashing the agriculture ministry decision to transfer a senior official from a sensitive post in violation of policy guidelines.

"Frequent transfers without reasons cannot be justified and would amount to malafide act. The malafides are to be inferred if the transfer is not in professed performance but for other purpose to accommodate another person for undisclosed reasons," it said. The CAT order came on an application filed by K S Gautam, deputy director, Central Insecticides Laboratory alleging that he was transferred only after ten months from regional plant quarantine station (RPQS), Mumbai, a sensitive post, without following a mandatory five years or more on extraneous reasons to favour a particular officer.

Gautam's counsel H K Gangwani had contended that though the transfer order appears to be routine, it was based on the applicant's alleged poor performance which was not borne out from the records. He had remained posted in non-sensitive assignments for 28 years undergoing nine transfers. Bureau Report