MIAN GHULAM AHMAD, J- Tauqeer Batool petitioner is a PTC teacher, who had her posting in the Girls Primary School, Farm Noor Mohammad, a village 7/8 miles away from Mailsi. Being a physically unlit, if not acutely incapacitated, person, as is stated, she arranged her mutual transfer with her elder sister, Kausar Batool, also a PTC teacher, posted in the Primary Girls School, Ward No.8, Mailsi: and this was done in October 1992. She, however, recently on 10-3-93. Was re- transferred to the village school, in order allegedly to accommodate one Azra Yasmeen, a new appointee. By the said order, two other lady teachers, Nasim Akhtar and Tanvir Akhtar, were also transferred, but their transfer orders were cancelled. Although the orders were to take effect after 31-3- 93, undue and indecent haste was shown by the Headmistress of the school, in asking the petitioner to relinquish, although her successor had not yet arrived.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner maintains that such a course had not the approval of rules, regulations or any prevalent practice but was actuated by malice. The transferring authority viz the D.D.E.O., it is urged, had no independent say in the mailer, and had acted at the behest of Mian Mahfooz Ahmad, local MPA, appointments and transfers are being made in the region under whose dictation. This order thus was without lawful authority, according to the learned counsel.
3. Whatever may be the background, and even malafides may be involved in the exercise, and in passing the order the D.D.E.O. Might not have applied her independent mind, the fact remains that an order of transfer of a civil servant is not liable to interference by the High Court in exercise of its constitutional jurisdiction and the remedy lies in the aggrieved person making a representation to the higher Authorities in the hierarchy of the Department; else, a recourse may be had to the Service Tribunal, if the orders indeed involve a detrimental change in the terms and conditions ol serv ice of the civil servant.
4. The D.D.E.O, is in attendance and has taken up the stand that she lias recently taken over and that her predecessor was a relative of the petitioner and had been showing soft corner to her. This factor alone, it will be realised, ought not to have influenced the mind of the present incumbent of the post, respondent No.1, to undo or reverse the order of transfer that had taken place in recent past, for it would recoil adversely on her own independence in the matter. It may be construed as the outcome of bitterness or friction of jealously of respondent No.1 with her predecessor-in-office.
Transfers of Government servants are generally ordered, keeping in view departmental requirements, and administrative reasons, besides public interests or public good; and not for satisfying anybody's personal spite or political vendetta, for any personal reasons or any extraneous considerations; and if it is the latter element that has played its part, it will pollute the system and disillusion or frustrate the civil servant, on being made the victim of an office intrigue or the target of some personal vengeance. Sometimes spirit of accommodation is also shown to a civil servant in acceding to his own request for shifting somewhere or for continued stay at a particular place, keeping in view his personal or family circumstances, for health reasons or on other compassionate grounds. But such circumstances have to be placed before the administrative authority concerned, and a desire on the part of a public servant in the matter of transfer, and even a compassion, cannot be enforced through a court of law, much less through the High Court, by invoking its extraordinary writ jurisdiction.
5. For this plain reason the petition is liable to dismissal; and I make an order accordingly; but 1 would wish that a copy of this order be conveyed to the Director Education (Schools), Multan Division, so that he exercises his supervisory authority in the right direction and growing disgruntlement that is monsterously manifesting itself amongst the rank and file of his subordinates is truly cured, and the alarming tendency of their approaching law courts in the matter of their transfers is effectively curbed.
6. Before I close, I would like to take note of the statement made by the D. D.E.O Mailsi before me, in open court, to the effect that she had been made aware of pronounced public reaction against the petitioner's posting at Mailsi and she was therefore constrained to order her transfer, adding that the local MPA had also desired that the petitioner should be transferred, as the people were demanding that someone else should also be given a chance to serve in the said school. By the way, he is the same MPA, who is stated by the petitioner to have been entertaining a personal grudge against all of her family members, against a political background: and it is doubtful if posting of the petitioner in the school, having taken place in no distant past, would have aroused feelings of resentment in the cross sections of the society, for any reason, say, in view of her credentials, character and conduct as a teacher. The least the public figures and the elected representatives cause interference in the field, so much the better it would obviously be, in public interest, as also for the cause of education. Head of the Department of Education in the Division is expected to attend to this vital aspect of the whole process, in right earnest, and take remedial measures to root out the mal-practices and undo the wrong, if any, done to low-paid teachers, particularly female ones, who manifestly face host of problems, while in service, especially on transfers, that loo to places far away from their abodes, whether they are unmarried. Or are married, with small children, if not husbands, to attend to. If one is posted, so far as is possible, at a place of his/her choice, he/she would work with a composed mind, and this would certainly improve or enhance hts or her efficiency and add to his/her in-put and out-put. It is a matter of common observation that teachers and lecturers generally exhaust their entire service span at two or three stations", and sometimes they start their career and end it up at one place. Why should one, especially in field of education or teaching, unless absolutely un-avoidable, for genuine administrative reasons, or unless there are serious complaints, be frequently shilled and un- necessarily disturbed?