Bombay HC quashes transfer of suspended EPFO employee to Indore

A division bench of the Bombay High Court recently set aside the transfer order of a class3 Central government employee the petitioner under suspension She is facing disciplinary departmental proceedings in MumbaiHowever the petitioner an employee of the Employeesrsquo Provident Fund Office EPFO was suddenly transferred to Regional Office Indore which was challenged in the high court after the Central Administrative Tribunal CAT upheld the transfer order The HC quashed and set aside the transfer on the ground that an employee under suspension canrsquot be transferredRajeshwar Panchal advocateldquoI am happy with the high court orderrdquo the petitioner said requesting anonymity as being a government employee she is not allowed to speak to media and also being under suspension pending inquiry she did not want to break the disciplinary rulesAlso read Bombay High Court irked with Maharashtra govts persistent stand over no quota benefits for abandoned kidsCase backgroundAccording to advocate Rajeshwar Panchal ldquoThe petitioner was appointed as lower division clerk in the Regional Office EPF Bandra East in October 1995 In 2008 the petitioner cleared the departmental exam for promotion to the post of section supervisor and was appointed as section supervisor ad hoc in April 2011rdquoldquoIn 2018 the petitioner was posted at the Regional Office Kandivli East and entrusted with the charge of account group 152 and two years later she was entrusted with an additional charge of section supervisor of account group 154 in the absence of the regular section supervisorrdquo he saidldquoDuring this period a colleague from group 154 allegedly committed fraud without the petitionerrsquos knowledge using questionable expertise he managed to steal the petitionerrsquos user ID and password and allegedly verified certain PF claims which he was not authorised to do On July 27 2021 when the alleged fraud came to light The employee in question made a written confession and admitted his exclusive role of having committed the alleged fraud and that he had not only used the petitionerrsquos login but also the login of other section supervisorsrdquo Panchal addedldquoThe petitioner was placed under suspension vide order dated February 22 2022 And as her computer user id and password were misused my client was also placed under suspension and subjected to a departmental inquiry which is still underway The petitioner received the charge sheet and thereafter the departmental enquiry commenced on April 26 2022 And on July 15 2022 the petitioner received an order dated July 12 transferring her to Regional Office Indore The petitioner approached the Central Administrative Tribunal CAT challenging this transferrdquo the advocate saidCAT upheld transferAccording to Panchal the matter was heard by CAT on October 19 ldquoHowever in its order dated November 9 the CAT pronounced the impugned order and dismissed the plea made by the petitioner The CAT upheld the transfer order We had to move the high court as CAT had not given proper reasoning for the rejection of our plea and this was one of the contentions stated in our writ filed before the Bombay High Courtrdquo he saidHC observationA division bench of Bombay High Court headed by Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne in a twopage order observed that it is not disputed by the parties that the petitioner is under suspension and while under suspension she is transferredThe order reads ldquoIt is not the case that only the headquarters is changed but the transfer is effectuated Upon being asked the learned counsel for the respondents could not show us any provision under which a suspended employee can be transferredrdquoThe impugned order was then quashed and set asideOct 19Day in 2022 when CAT heard the matter