Calcutta High Court dismisses PIL challenging officers transfers in West Bengal ahead of Assembly polls

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL challenging the transfer of administrative and police officers by the poll panel in West Bengal stating that the petitioner failed to establish that the actions were arbitrary or had harmed public interestThe Election Commission had transferred several officers including the states chief secretary the home secretary and the DGP following the announcement of the assembly poll schedule in the stateThe petitioner claimed that these largescale transfers would affect the functioning of the state administration and sought to have the poll panels orders set asideDismissing the petition a division bench presided over by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul held that the petitioner could not prove that the Election Commission of India had used its power to transfer officers in an arbitrary manner resulting in any injury to public interestIn the absence of establishing this elementary requirement to maintain a PIL the petition cannot be entertained the division bench also comprising Justice Partha Sarathi Sen saidThe court observed The legality validity and propriety of transfer orders which have not caused any public injury cannot be gone into in a public interest litigationIt noted that the petitioner Arka Kumar Nag had tried to establish a nexus between certain senior politicians and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar However the ECIs counsel DS Naidu submitted that no such persons against whom allegations of connivance or pressure tactics were made had been namedHolding that no allegation of malice could be entertained against the poll panel the high court observed that apart from bald pleadings no material could be placed to establish any such nexusThe court said that merely because the ECI transferred a sizable number of officers it cannot be said that the action was arbitrary capricious or mala fidemdashespecially when a similar or larger number of transfers and postings had occurred nationwideThus we find no reason to hold that while shifting or transferring officers in West Bengal the ECI engaged in any stepmotherly treatment the court addedIt noted that the petitioner could not establish a case demonstrating with precision that the transfer orders would lead to administrative collapse or deprive the public of development schemesThe division bench further stated that a transfer is an incident of service and if a transfer order violates any statutory provision the aggrieved employee or officer can challenge it in appropriate proceedingsThe court clarified that this judgment will not prevent individual officers from challenging their transfer orders in accordance with the lawNoting that the petitioner is a practicing lawyer the bench said he cannot have a grievance over officer transfers unless such actions result in injury to public interestRegarding the petitionerrsquos request to initiate impeachment proceedings against the CEC the court said it saw no reason to address this issue in the present caseThe bench also found little substance in the arguments made by the petitionerrsquos counsel Kalyan Banerjee and Advocate General Kishore Dutta representing the West Bengal government that the transfer of a large number of officers and staff had created a vacuum in the stateThe court stated that when one officer is transferred another occupies the position Thus no vacuum has been created in the system or in the administrative arena the bench saidThe court further noted that the state of West Bengal which supported the petitioner is a respondent in the matter and cannot enter into the shoes of the petitionerElections to the 294member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29 with votes to be counted on May 4This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever