Bombay HC quashes transfer of ZP supervisor, allows her to take care of brother with special needs

Coming to the rescue of a woman working as a supervisor with the Zilla Parishad (ZP), Satara, the Bombay High Court has quashed her transfer on humanitarian grounds as she has to take care of her brother, who is a child with special needs and her ailing mother.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne recently quashed the transferring order. She was appointed as a junior clerk at Karad on March 1, 2006, and was transferred to Satara in 2011. Later, in April 2013, she was transferred to the Kanher office where she is currently posted.

According to her plea, her father passed away on January 23, 2014. After her father’s death, her mother, now 72, and brother, who is a child with special needs, started staying with her and her husband. She has also been appointed as a guardian of her brother and the same was informed to the ZP. The senior officer concerned also issued a letter on May 10, 2021, to the woman granting her “exemption from transfer” as per government rules.

Transfer order issued in 2021

However, the chief executive officer of the ZP issued an order transferring her to Satararoad, Koregaon, on July 26, 2021.

Hence she approached the HC challenging the transfer. The HC, in August 2021, had granted an interim stay on her transfer.

Her advocates – SR Nargolkar and Arjun Kadam – pointed out a government resolution dated May 15, 2014, specifying policy about the transfer of employees of ZP. This grants exemption to parents and guardians of children with special needs.

No school for children with special needs in Satararoad

During the hearing last week, Nargolkar informed the HC that the place where she is transferred does not have a school for children with special needs. “He has been going to the present institution since he was 10 years old. He is comfortable there. To make him change now, is not correct,” said Nargolkar.

“As it is submitted that the place where the Petitioner is transferred does not have a school for a special child in its nearby vicinity and considering the fact that the interim order is operating for more than 1 ½ years, we set aside the order of transfer,” said the HC while quashing her transfer.