CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has set aside a single judge’s order that had endorsed the transfer order of a ministerial staff of a non-government aided college issued by the director of higher education and dismissed a petition which challenged it.
The division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman held that the ministerial staff of non-government aided colleges cannot be transferred to another institution.
The high court was hearing an appeal filed by a junior clerk of Dhamnagar College in Bhadrak district who was transferred to Naami College in the same district.
The petitioner filed the appeal after the single judge dismissed his petition on March 20, 2025 with categorical finding that the moment such transfer was necessitated by an administrative exigency, the high court should be slow and circumspect in interfering with such administrative order.
According to the petition, the DHE had issued a circular to principals of all non-government aided colleges on April 16, 2022, stipulating that the employees who are in receipt of grant-in-aid are not transferable from one institution to another.
The division bench observed, “Since a decision is taken by the Higher Education department that the employees of the non-government colleges who receive grant-in-aid cannot be transferred from one institution to another, it does not invite any interpretative tool to be used to restrict its applicability to inter-revenue district and not intra-revenue district.”