Gouri Debnath (Bhowmik) vs State Of Tripura And Ors.

Heard learned counsel Mr. Samarjit Bhattacharjee for the petitioner and learned Senior Government Advocate, Mr. P K Dhar, for the State-respondents.

Petitioner is a Post Graduate Teacher in Government school. By the impugned order dated 20th September 2020, she is transferred from her previous posting at Jirania to Government school at Khowai. Her case is that she has a son who suffers from mental challenges as well as physical disabilities. She has produced medical certificates in this respect. She claims that the Government transfer policy also takes into account such hardships of the families of the Government servants and keeps them out of the purview of routine transfers. The petitioner has made representations which are yet to be decided. Counsel for the petitioner pointed out that the petitioner first reported at the place of transfer and thereafter took up the issue with the Government authorities for sympathetic consideration. However, so far none of the representations have been decided.

It is true that a Government servant holding transferable post is liable to serve within the transfer zone. However, the Government policies also give suitable consideration for personal hardships of specific kind in the families of the Government servants. In particular, when in this case it is pointed out that the son of the petitioner suffers from physical and mental challenges and when the Government policy also recognizes this as one of the grounds for sympathetic consideration of postings, the least that the authorities could have done was to take the representations of the petitioner into consideration and decide them.

Under the circumstances, let the Director, School Education, take a decision on the petitioner's representation dated 23rd September, 2020 bearing in mind the Government policies within 4(four) weeks from today. For such purpose, the petitioner shall place this order before the said authority along with a copy of the said representation. If the petitioner wishes to make a further representation it will be open for her to annex the same also.

With these directions the petition is disposed of at this stage. Pending application(s), if any, also stands disposed of.