Case: State of Uttar Pradesh and Others Vs. Jagdeo Singh

1. The respondent was working as a Station House Officer at the Chandpur Police Station in Uttar Pradesh. It isn that Station House Officers are in the overall charge of police stations in which they are attached. Under certain departmental instructions issued in Uttar Pradesh, a Station House Officer is entitled to a special emolument of Rs 15 per month while he is in charge of a police station. By an order dated August 21, 1973, the respondent was transferred from the Chandpur Police Station to the Kotwali Police Station as a Second Officer. He protested against that posting since it involved the loss of the special emolument. Later on, he was transferred to Fatehgarh. He made a representation that he was entitled to be posted as a Station House Officer, Fatehpur, but that representation was rejected on the ground that his name was not approved for posting as a Station House Officer in the district of Fatehgarh. The respondent was transferred again as a Second Officer to Kanpur. Finding that his representation had been rejected, he filed a writ petition in the High Court of Allahabad asking that the order transferring him as a Second Officer of a Police Station be quashed. The writ petition having been allowed by the High Court, the State of U.P., the Deputyl of Police, Kanpur Range and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, have filed this appeal.

Reasoning:
3. We must make it clear that any and every transfer of a police officer from one police station to another will not amount of punishment, even if it involves the loss of a special emolument. If a police officer is transferred from one charge to another in the ordinary course of administrative exigencies, the provisions of Section 7 of the Police Act will not be attracted because a transfer simpliciter is not punishment. It is only when the transfer is made by way of punishment, as in the instant case, that Section 7 would come into play.