The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has told the Cooperation department to make “all earnest efforts” to complete the process for general transfers in the department for 2024 through online by the end of April.
General transfers have been inordinately delayed in the department due to its failure to operationalise the online mechanism. The poor progress in the general transfers for 2023 has now prompted the KAT to direct the department to skip it and focus on the transfers for 2024.
The KAT order came on a petition filed by two staff members of the department. In February 2017, the Personnel and Administrative Reforms department, Government of Kerala, had asked all government departments to create electronic databases of the staff and implement transfers and postings exclusively through an online system. The Cooperation department is yet to comply with the order.
In January this year, the tribunal had asked the department to give reasons as to why the general transfers for 2023 should not be skipped and steps for the 2024 transfers initiated. The tribunal issued this direction noticing that the procedures for the 2023 transfers were in their initial stages although the year had ended. The tribunal observed that there was every chance that the general transfers for 2024 too would be hit if the department persisted with the measures for the 2023 transfers.
More time sought
Meanwhile, the Secretary, Cooperation department, had sought more time saying that the software developed for online transfers needed to be “customised further.”
In its latest order, the KAT has also directed the department to take the necessary steps for “rectifying the defects in the software” at the earliest and issue the notification inviting applications for the 2024 transfers without delay.
