State of Bihar & Ors. vs Dr. Chaitraya Kumar Singh & Ors.

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

19 July 2019

Case No.

Civil Appeal No.5709 of 2019

Result

Allowed

Bench

D.Y. Chandrachud, Indira Banerjee

Citation

[2019] 9 S.C.R. 1060 : 2019 INSC 782

Headnote

Service Law: Transfer – Re-organisation of two States – Bifurcation of erstwhile State into the State of Bihar and the State of Jharkhand – First respondent-Medical Officer initially allocated to the State of Jharkhand – After three years on request by respondent, allocation made to State of Bihar with mutual approval of both States – However, the respondent continued to work as employee of State of Jharkhand till he attained the age of superannuation – Writ petition filed by respondent few days before his superannuation, seeking issuance of directions to the State of Jharkhand to relieve him for joining the State of Bihar – High Court issued direction to State of Bihar to issue orders for accepting the first respondent as its employee on transfer from State of Jharkhand – Upheld by the Division Bench – On appeal, held: First respondent took no steps to pursue his legal remedies when he was aggrieved by the decision of the State of Jharkhand not to relieve him from service so as to enable him to join the State of Bihar – He did not espouse his rights and remedies under the law by seeking recourse to the reliefs available at that stage, rather continued to work for the State of Jharkhand for seven years and retired from service on

30 April 2017 – Order of the Government of Jharkhand relieving him on 31 July 2017 after his superannuation, is of no consequence – Having now attained the age of superannuation in the State of Jharkhand, the State to which he was originally assigned and where despite the order of re-allocation the respondent worked for seven years, it would not be appropriate to direct that he should be absorbed by the State of Bihar – Thus, the High Court erred in issuing the directions and the order of the High Court set aside.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by DR DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, J. 1. Leave granted. 2. This appeal arises from a judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Jharkhand by which a direction that was issued by the learned Single Judge to the State of Bihar to issue orders “for accepting the first respondent as its employee on transfer from the State of Jharkhand” has been upheld. 3. The first respondent was appointed as an Ayurvedic Medical Officer on 26 May 1989 in the erstwhile State of Bihar prior to its reorganization. On 15 November 2000, the Bihar Re-organisation Act resu

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