APPSC Group-I recruitment: Supreme Court upholds HC order

Key Highlights

• Vijayanand did some fire-fighting on being reprimanded for not complying with the impugned order, and submitted his report the next morning (February 26).
• Hearing the SLP on February 27, a Division Bench of the Apex Court comprising Justices Rajesh Bindal and Vijay Bishnoi upheld the High Court order while expressing dissatisfaction over the aggrieved officers’ plea that they be retained in the said focal posts.
• In the SLP, the aggrieved officers argued that the transfer and posting of civil servants were incidents of executive administration and ordinarily immune from judicial interference absent mala fides or violation of statutory mandate.
• They insisted that the High Court order constituted an unwarranted intrusion into executive functioning.
• The HC order affected the cadre positioning, administrative authority, public perception, and future promotional trajectory of the petitioners, they stated, maintaining that there were neither compelling reasons nor  demonstrable material that justify their shifting to non-focal posts.