Greater Latitude Must Be Given To Military Posts Compared To Civilian Posts: Delhi High Court In CRPF Personnel's Plea Against Posting

The observation was made while hearing a petition filed by a CRPF personnel, challenging his transfer to Arunachal Pradesh after he had served at Jammu & Kashmir for three years.

The petitioner's case was that Clause 8(a)(ii) of the Standing Order 04/2022 envisages alternating hard postings and soft postings and that once the petitioner had served at hard posting for three years, he was entitled to a soft posting and could not therefore be transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.

Respondent-authorities however claimed that the Instruction which was cited by the petitioner had been superseded.

At the outset, the division bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Ajay Digpaul noted that Clause 8(b) considerably dilutes the rigour of Clause 8(a) as it vests discretion with the CRPF to determine the posting of officers keeping in mind operational and administrative requirements.

It further cited Clause 6(a) which even while permitting officers to give preferences / choices of places of postings, clearly states that there was no guarantee of posting at a place of choice.

“Thus, it is clear that there are several considerations which operate while determining the posting of a particular officer. We have to be conscious of the fact that we are dealing with Armed Forces and, therefore, have to maintain a more conservative stands as compared to the approach which is to be adopted while dealing with ordinary civilian posts,” said the Court.

It therefore disposed of the matter with a direction to the respondents to treat the petition as a representation and take a view thereon, by providing reasons, within two weeks.

Appearance: Ms. Saahila Lamba, Advocate for Petitioner; Mr. Sahaj Garg, SPC with Mr. Yash Tyagi(GP)

Case title: Ajay Kumar v. Union of India & Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 584

Case no.: W.P.(C) 5742/2025

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