High court pulls up GU for ‘mala fide’ transfer of clerk

The Gujarat high court has pulled up Gujarat University for transferring a clerk to another department because of his union activities.

The high court observed that the decision to transfer the clerk from the department of physical education to the university’s reading library in Saraspur deserved to be “quashed and set aside as the same is mala fide and by way of victimisation and even no decision of the appropriate authority to transfer the respondent is placed on record.”

The high court has upheld the judgment of the Gujarat University services tribunal, which had quashed the decision to transfer and later suspend Bhavin Dave, who earlier worked in the department of physical education and was transferred to the reading library with other employees from different departments.

The department had refused to relieve on Dave on grounds that the authorities had not been taken into confidence on the transfer. As Dave was not relieved, he was not in a position to assume service at the reading library, which prompted the university to suspend him for not following orders. Dave then approached the tribunal, alleging that he had been transferred only because of his union activities. The tribunal had then quashed Dave’s transfer and suspension.

Justice MR Shah has observed that the high court is in “complete agreement” with the findings of the tribunal. He observed: “There is no justifiable reason pointed out in support of the decision to suspend the respondent. The petitioner has failed to satisfy the court with respect to the justification of the order of suspension.”

While the tribunal had earlier observed that there was no question of departmental enquiry being initiated against Dave further, the high court observed that the initiation of a departmental enquiry was not the subject matter of the initial application submitted before the tribunal and so it was not justified in observing that there was no question of initiating a further departmental enquiry.