“Courts should be reluctant to interfere in transfer orders”

Transfer ordinarily is an incidence of service and courts should be very reluctant to interfere in transfer orders as long as they are not clearly illegal, the Supreme Court has held.

A Bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju and Justice T.S. Thakur said: “In particular, transfer and postings of policemen must be left to the discretion of the State authorities concerned, which are in the best position to assess the necessities of the administrative requirements of the situation.”



Writing the judgment, Justice Katju said: “The administrative authorities concerned may be of the opinion that more policemen are required in any particular district and/or another range than in another, depending upon their assessment of the law and order situation and/or other considerations. These are purely administrative matters and it is well settled that courts must not ordinarily interfere in administrative matters and should maintain judicial restraint.”

In the instant appeals, Haryana was aggrieved over the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashing the orders of transfer of police personnel of various grades from one district/range to another.

‘Will create difficulties'
Allowing the appeals and setting aside the impugned judgment, the Bench said: “If the view of the High Court is to prevail, great difficulties will be created for the State administration since it will not be able to transfer/deploy its police force from one place, where there may be relative peace, to another district or region/range in the State where there may be disturbed law and order situation and hence requirement of more police.”

The Bench said: “Courts should not interfere with purely administrative matters except [when] absolutely necessary on account of violation of any fundamental or other legal right of the citizen. After all, the State administration cannot function with its hands tied by the judiciary behind its back.

“As Justice Homes of the U.S. Supreme Court pointed out, there must be some free play of the joints provided to the executive authorities. Judges must observe judicial restraint and must not ordinarily encroach into the domain of the legislature or the executive.”

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