The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in a verdict has ruled that a transfer order is an administrative order which cannot be challenged and treated as a punishment. A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the verdict after hearing a leave to appeal petition filed by the Agrani Bank against a judgment passed by the Administrative Appellate Tribunal in Dhaka.
Being aggrieved by the judgment of the Administrative Tribunal, Agrani Bank officer Hanif Sheikh preferred to appeal with the Administrative Appellate Tribunal. The Appellate Tribunal after hearing the appeal allowed the same and set aside the judgment and order passed by the Tribunal. Feeling aggrieved by the judgment of the Administrative Appellate Tribunal the Agrani Bank filed a civil petition for leave to appeal with the apex court of the country. After hearing the leave to appeal petition the apex court delivered its verdict on July 31 in 2022. And the full text of the verdict has been released recently on the SC website.
It is a new decision that jobs are transferable where opportunity is available unless the appointment order restricts. But if the transfer order is vindictive and mala fide, then the courts most likely to take a different view.
As of the verdict, if implemented effectively, the offenders must be awarded punishment like termination, cancellation of promotion, lowering grade, slashing salary, and perks. In the last two decades, thousands of offenders in all government and autonomous bodies secured clean-chit by simply transfer orders. It is now a common practice to protect government official their fellow officials in the garb of internal investigation. But crime is a crime so it cannot be a matter of disciplinary action only to shield him from criminal proceedings.
