Transfer Guidelines for Group ‘C’ & ‘B’ officials

Transfer Guidelines for Group ‘C’ & ‘B’ officials

1. Applicability:-

These guidelines shall be applicable to the following:-

i. Group ‘C’ officials
ii. Group ‘B’ (non-gazetted) officials
iii. Assistant Superintendent of Posts (Group ‘B’ Gazetted)

2. Operation of Rule 37 of Postal Manual Volume IV:-

Not withstanding anything contained in these guidelines an official is liable to be transferred to any part of India unless it is expressly ordered otherwise for any particular class or classes of officials.

Provided that Postmen, Village Postman and MTS should not, except for very special reasons to be recorded in writing, be transferred from one district to another.

3. Transfer at one’s own request under Rule 38 of Postal Manual Volume IV:-

A. General Conditions:-

(i) As a general rule, an official shall not be transferred from one unit to another, either within the same Circle, or to another Circle unless he has completed probation period satisfactorily.

(ii) Transfer of an official when requested for own convenience, shall not be discouraged if they can be made without injury to the rights of others.

(iii) As it is not possible to accommodate an official borne on one gradation list into another gradation list without injury to the other members in that gradation list, such transfers shall not ordinarily be allowed except by way of mutual exchange. Transfers by way of mutual exchange, if in themselves inherently unobjectionable, shall be allowed. But in order to safeguard the rights of employees borne in the gradation lists of both the offices, the official brought in shall take the place, in the new gradation list; that would have been assigned to him had he been originally recruited in that unit or the place vacated by the official with whom he exchanges appointment, whichever is the lower.

(iv) When an official is transferred at his own request but without arranging for mutual exchange, he shall rank junior in the gradation list of the new unit to all officials of that unit on the date on which the transfer order is issued, including also all persons who have been approved for appointment to that grades as on that date.

(v) If the old and the new unit form parts of a wider unit for the purpose of promotion to a higher cadre, the transferee (whether by mutual exchange or otherwise) will retain his original seniority in the gradation list of the wider unit.

(vi) An official transferred from one unit to another will be allowed to seek re-transfer to his/her old unit. However, such cases shall be considered as a fresh transfer case under Rule 38 subject to all other provisions of these guidelines.

(vii) To remove any doubt it is hereby clarified an official on transfer to an unit from where he/she was transferred earlier shall not claim the seniority in the old unit before such initial transfer. Any special privilege to which an official would have been entitled by virtue of his position in the gradation list of the unit from which he is transferred will be forfeited on his transfer to a new gradation list.

(viii) Transfer under Rule 38 shall be permitted only against similar type/categories vacancy i.e. Direct Recruit shall be transferred against Direct Recruitment vacancy and promote against a promotion vacancy. Further OC candidate shall be transferred against OC vacancy, SC candidate against SC vacancy and ST candidate against ST vacancy.

(ix) Under Rule 38, inter-Circle and intra-Circle transfer from one distinct cadre to another viz. Post Offices to Circle Office, Regional Office, SBCO, Postal Assistant to Sorting Assistant etc. or vice versa shall not be allowed.

(x) Only such official who has completed probation or put in minimum service of 2 years in the grade where there is no probation period shall be eligible for transfer under Rule 38:

Provided that the condition of 2 years or probation period shall not be applicable for Persons with Disabilities (PwD):

Provided further that the condition of 2 years or probation period shall not be applicable if employee/his or her spouse/fully dependent children are suffering from Terminal illness. Transfer case of such officials shall be referred to Directorate with due recommendation of CPMsG concerned supported by relevant documents. It shall be open to the Directorate to seek second medical opinion of the appropriate authority.

(xi) Under Rule 38, an official will be eligible for two Inter-circle transfer and two Intra-Circle (i.e. Inter-region/Intra region) transfer during entire service.

(xii) One additional chance for transfer in both the categories, viz. Inter-Circle and Inter -Circle, will be allowed to Persons with Disabilities (PwD). Employee with disability who has been appointed without availing relaxed standard of merit for PH candidates or an employee who suffered disability after initial employment, shall be allowed transfer as of a PwD candidate, subject to submission of appropriate certificate as per Government of India’s instructions in support of claim of being disabled.

(xiii) Married employee whose spouse is working in Central Governemnt/State Government/PSUs of Central & State Government seeking transfer to the place of posting of the spouse or to the hometown of the spouse shall be transferred on a priority basis preferably within six months of receipt of such requests. Shortage of staff shall not be the sole criteria for rejecting such transfer request. All such requests for transfer not agreed to by the competent authority shall be referred to the Directorate with proper justification. Priority accorded to married employee under this provision shall be available only once in whole career of the employee. However, in case of female employee, such priority shall be available for each legal marriage.

(xiv) Widow women seeking transfer under rule 38 shall be transferred on a priority basis preferably within six months of receipt of such request. Such a request shall be considered within the number of chances available for rule 38. However, if the maximum available chance for rule 38 have been availed by the official, then, one additional chance shall be allowed for considering such request. The provision contained herein shall be equally applicable for legally divorced women employee.

(xv) An Assistant Superintendent of Posts shall not be transferred under rule 38 to a Circle where all his seniors in the grade of Inspector Posts are not promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Posts, excluding those who have not been promoted due to disciplinary action or who have denied promotion.

B. Authority competent to approve transfer under Rule 38:-

(I) Cases where all conditions are met:-

(i) Inter-Circle-CPMG of both Circles.
(ii) Intra-Circle (where change of Region is involved)-CPMG
(iii) Intra-Region-PMG

(II) Cases where any of the conditions of these guidelines are not met – Directorate

C. Maintenance of request register & Schedule for transfer under Rule 38:-

(i) An application for transfer shall be addressed to the competent authority as mentioned in Para B above. In case of Inter-Circle transfer/Inter-region transfer application shall only be made to the Competent Authority of Circle/region where the official is working. Advance copy of application should not be sent to the authority where transfer is sought.

(ii) As and when an application for transfer is received, it shall be recorded in inward or outward transfer request register, as the case may be, in order from date of receipt of such application by the competent authority i.e. CPMG/PMG. Authority competent to allow transfer under Rule 38 shall strictly adhere to the order of requests received.

(iii) On receipt of a transfer request, the office of the competent authority, viz. CPMG/PMG, shall seek views of the controlling officer of the official, who shall send his views within 15 days, failing which it shall be presumed that the controlling officer has no objection to the transfer request. After considering the report of the controlling officer, the Competent Authority shall seek consent of CPMG of other Circle in case of Inter-Circle transfer/PMG incase of Intra-Circle transfer/Divisional Head in case of Intra-region transfer. Such authority has agreed to allow inward transfer of the official.

(iv) Where a request for transfer is not agreed to, the reasons thereof, shall be communicated to the official immediately.

(v) All Circles/Regions shall initially upload Inward and Outward transfer register on India Post website within 60 days of issuing of these guidelines and shall update it on quaterly basis.

(vi) Before announcing vacancies for a particular recruitment year whether under Direct Recruitment, Departmental examination or promotion, request received under Rule 38 shall be considered in first instance. Only after considering all such requests, vacancies shall be announced.

(vii) Transfer under Rule 38 shall be considered twice a year as under:

a) Transfer case shall be considered only in the month of December and June.

b) For transfer cases considered and approved in the month of December, orders shall be issued by 31st December by the competent authority, transferring the official w.e.f. 1st April of the following year. Thus, allowing the administration/official to plan in the intervening period. In such a case, controlling officer shall issue relieving order of the official latest by 31st March, failing which, official will be deemed relieved on 01st April.

c) For transfer cases considered and approved in the month of June, orders shall be issued by 30th June by the competent authority, transferring the official w.e.f. 1st October of the same year. Thus, allowing the administration/official to plan in the intervening period. In such a case, controlling officer shall issue relieving order of the official latest by 30th September, failing which, official will be deemed relieved on 01st October.

4. Requested for temporary inter-Circle transfer.

Request for temporary inter-Circle transfer shall not be entertained except only in deserving cases for reasons to be recorded in writing. The guidelines in this regard are as under:

(i) Temporary inter-circle transfer shall be approved only by the Directorate on the recommendation of both CPMG.

(ii) The Circles shall not entertain requests for inter-Circle transfer on temporary basis in a routine manner. Such requests shall be considered by the Circles in the first instance under Rule 38 of Postal Manual Volume IV and instructions issued by the Directorate from time to time, if they are otherwise eligible. If the case is not considered under Rule 38, the reasons therefore may be recorded.

(iii) Such inter-Circle transfer cases of officials on temporary basis, referred to Directorate, will be considered only when both the CPMsG of the Circles have agreed to in deserving cases after the genuineness of ground for such transfer stated by the official is established.

(iv) Inter-Circle transfer on temporary basis shall be available to only those officials, who have completed probation period, wherever applicable, and in other cases on completion of two years of service in the grade.

(v) Grant of temporary transfer from one Circle to another will be considered initially for a period of one year only. Further extension of one year shall be considered by the Directorate on recommendations of the CPMsG concerned.

(vi) In no case, temporary transfer shall be allowed to an official beyond two years in one spell and four years in two spells in entire service career. There shall be a minimum gap of 3 years between two spell of temporary transfer.

(vii) Requests of the officials for extension of temporary transfer should be forwarded by the Circle with due recommendation of both the Circles at least two months in advance before expiry of period of temporary transfer already granted by the Directorate.

(viii) Inter-Circle transfer on temporary basis from one cadre to another cadre, e.g. Postal Assistant to Sorting Assistant etc. shall not be permissible. Circles should not forward such request to the Directorate.

(ix) If the official is promoted during the period of temporary transfer, such official should join in the promoted post within a month, failing which, he/she shall be debarred for promotion for one year.

(x) Requests of temporary transfers and extension thereon already granted to the officials by the Directorate before issue of this letter will be regulated as per these new temporary transfer guidelines.

5. Rotational Transfers

Rotational transfer of employees shall be regulated as under:-

I. Post tenure of an employee shall be 3 years and station tenure shall be 6 years. Provided that an employee may be transferred before completion of post/station tenure on administrative grounds to be recorded in writing by an authority who is superior to the authority competent to order such transfer.

II. Matching of human resource with requirements of posts and placing officials in the choice stations may be considered in the overall context of administrative requirement and austerity measures.

III. Inter-station transfers should be restricted to minimum in view of the austerity measures.

IV. All such officials who are due for rotational transfer on completion of post tenure/station tenure shall be asked to give at least three options of the place of posting/station with reasons to enable the authorities to consider the same while effecting transfer. However, such request shall be considered subject to administrative convenience and availability of post.

V. On completion of post-tenure of three years, to the extent possible, all officials will be posted in same station. Where it is not possible to do so without shifting some of them outside their present stations, they may be posted outside their present stations to the extent administratively feasible.

VI. In respect of cities where the whole city forms a Postal Region, on completion of station tenure of six year, a Circle cadre official shall be transferred out of the Division where he is working. In other words, a division within such Postal Region shall compute as a station tenure for Circle cadre officials.

VII. If officials belonging to various cadres are waiting since long for their posting to particular stations and it has not been found possible to accede to their request for one reason or other, such pending requests for transfer may be acceded to in really deserving cases by transferring out officials having longest stay in such stations in the public interest.

VIII. An official may be posted back to any sensitive post that he/she had held earlier; subject to the condition that such transfer may only be considered after a break of full post tenure. However, the competent authority while considering such requests shall strictly adhere to the instructions issued by Investigation Division time to time under preventive vigilance.

IX. Rotational Transfer of officials working in Saving Bank Control Organization shall be made within the cluster of Divisions. However, in exceptional circumstances, DPS (Hqs.) in consultation with Accounts Officer ICO (SB) may consider movement of SBCO officials outside the cluster.

X. Officials, other than all Sub Postmaster/Postal Assistants in a single handed or double handed Post Offices, who are due for retirement within one year shall not be transferred, unless otherwise specially specified or there are very special reasons to be recorded in writing by the Head of the Circle. Further, official due for retirement within four years shall not be posted as Sub Postmaster/Postal Assistants in a single handed or double handed Post Offices

XI. Extension of post tenure in respect of all Group ‘C’ staff, other than Sub Postmaster/Postal Assistant in a single handed or double handed Post Offices, may be allowed in deserving cases for a period of one year by the Regional Postmasters General/ Chief PMG after recording full justification on file. Such extensions to Group ‘B’ officials shall be granted by the Head of the Circles after due consideration. In no case, post tenure of an official shall be extended beyond one year.

XII. An Official on his transfer, after joining the station assigned to him, shall not be considered for retransfer for a period of two years to the station from which he was transferred. Two year break is; however, only a minimum condition and it will not entitle an officer/official to claim retransfer to the old station in preference to others who have spent longer period out-side. Retransfer before completion of two years may be considered only in extreme public interest or on extreme compassionate grounds in exceptional cases with the approval of the Heads of the Circle.

XIII. The transfer/posting/retransfer of officials as Sub Postmaster/Postal Assistant in a single handed or double handed Post Offices shall be regulated as per the instructions issued by Investigation Division of the Directorate, in this regard.

XIV. Postman, Mail Guard, Driver (MMS & Staff Car Driver) and Multi-Tasking Staff are exempted from rotational transfer except on administrative grounds.

XV. Where spouse of an employee is working, guidelines issued by Department of Personnel & Training regarding posting of husband and wife at same station shall be taken into account while implementing rotational transfer guidelines.

XVI. For employees having differently abled dependents, guidelines issued by Department of Personnel & Training regarding posting of Government employees who have differently abled dependents shall be taken into account while implementing transfer guidelines.

XVII. Each Circle shall notify in advance the schedule of Rotational Transfer taking into consideration the academic session of the State/UT served by the Circle. Schedule, thus notified, shall specify cut-off date, last date for issue of transfer order & date by which transfer shall be implemented.

XVIII. Rotational Transfer ordered shall be implemented within 45 days of its issue. In case transfers are not implemented within 45 days, Circle shall report such instances to the Directorate with reasons and officer/official responsible for non-implementation of the transfer within stipulated time.

XIX. New products/services and modern technology are being introduced in the Department of Posts in a big way. Heads of Circles/Regional Heads/Divisional Head/Unit Heads therefore, should build up a pool of trained officials to handle these new products and technology related jobs so that manpower is readily available to replace the officials presently working on completion of tenure and to ensure achievement of desired objectives. proper succession planning will have to be made by the HOCs/Regional/Divisional/Unit Heads well in time. The Department has already taken necessary steps to train its manpower for successful implementation of IT project. It should not be difficult to replace such officials on completion of tenure. As such, the competent authority should ensure transfer of such staff on completion of post tenure/station tenure.

XX. It may be ensured that women employees are posted/transferred to an office only after ensuring that basic and essential amenities for women as required are available there.

6. Provisions of these guidelines are in addition to the provision of Postal Manual Volume IV and therefore provisions of Postal Manual Volume IV which are not incorporated here shall continue to prevail. In case of conflict between any provision of the Postal Manual Volume IV and these guidelines, relevant provision of these guidelines shall prevail and the provision of the Postal Manual shall be deemed to be modified.

7. Bringing of direct or indirect political or other outside influence regarding posting/transfer would attract the provisions of Rule 20 of CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964, as per which an appropriate disciplinary action may be initiated against the official/officer.

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