Request Transfer to Another Zone, Circle or Cadre Refused

A request transfer is a concession, but the queue is a rule

No central government employee has a legal right to be transferred where he wants. A request transfer, whether to another division, railway zone, postal circle, commissionerate or cadre, is granted when administration can spare the person and the receiving unit can take him. Courts accept that, and a case that asks the tribunal simply to order a transfer because the employee needs it will not go far.

What departments cannot do is run the process unevenly. Most of them keep a register of requests, decide them in order of registration within categories, publish release lists and lay down conditions for who can be relieved and when. Once those rules exist, the department must follow them for everyone. A junior in the register released ahead of you without a recorded reason, a condition applied to you and waived for others, or a request ignored for years without a decision are all matters the tribunal will examine under Article 14.

So the useful question is not whether you deserve the transfer. It is where you stand in the queue, what rule governs the queue, and whether that rule has been applied to you the way it was applied to others.

Kinds of request transfer and what usually goes with them

Seniority: the price of moving on your own request

Under the consolidated DoPT instructions on seniority of 11 November 2010, an employee who moves to another cadre on his own request is placed below the existing members of that grade in the new cadre. The Department of Posts applies the same principle to Rule 38 transfers, and the railway establishment rules do so for own-request transfers between divisions and railways. Ten years of seniority in Jhansi can become the bottom of the list in Lucknow.

This affects promotion more than pay. Your pay is protected, and your past regular service usually counts for pension. But the next promotion may come years later, and departmental examination eligibility may be counted afresh. Whether earlier service counts for MACP or for eligibility periods depends on the scheme and any clarification, so check the specific provision for your post.

Many employees sign the undertaking to accept bottom seniority without reading it, and later want to challenge it. That is very hard. If the seniority loss matters to you, think about it before you are relieved. Our guide on seniority after a request transfer explains exceptions, including transfers that are partly in public interest.

The waiting list: where most real disputes lie

In most departments a request, once registered, takes a place in a list for that category and that destination. When the releasing unit has staff to spare and the receiving unit has a vacancy, names are taken in order. The disputes we see most often are about this list: an employee number 6 in the register watches numbers 9 and 14 relieved, or the register itself is not maintained, or is quietly reset when a new officer takes charge.

Departments may take a name out of turn for recognised reasons, such as an employee with a serious medical condition, a spouse case under the DoPT spouse posting guidelines, or a person with disability. These exceptions must be recorded and applied evenly. They are not a cover for unexplained releases. Our pages on spouse postings and transfer requests on medical grounds explain those categories, which may also be open to you.

Get your register position in writing. Ask the personnel branch for a letter confirming your registration date and number. If refused, an RTI application for your own register entry, and the release orders for your category over the last two or three years, will usually produce the information. Names of other employees in release orders are part of public orders already issued.

Reasons departments give for holding you back

Some reasons are legitimate. A department short of staff in your category can decline to release anyone for a time, provided it treats everyone in the category the same way. A pending disciplinary case, a period of probation not yet complete, a bond for training, or a minimum period of service in the current unit can each be a condition in the policy. A receiving unit without a vacancy is a real obstacle.

Other reasons are weaker. 'Administrative reasons' with no detail, a refusal to forward the application at all, or a rule applied only to you are open to question. So is a hold that lasts years without any review, since a request kept pending indefinitely amounts to a refusal without a decision.

Ask for the reason in writing. A department that has to put its reason on paper often finds it cannot, and that letter, or the absence of one after a clear request, becomes the basis for any later case.

Railways: transfer cycles and vacancy thresholds

Indian Railways handles inter-railway own-request transfers through its HRMS transfer module, introduced under Railway Board orders in 2022. Railway Board circular RBE No. 148/2023 set out two processing cycles a year, with fixed dates for releasing divisions to estimate who can be spared, for receiving divisions to give consent, and for staff to be relieved. If your application was not put up in a cycle in which juniors were processed, that is a point to raise.

RBE No. 32/2025 of April 2025 added a vacancy threshold. Transfers in a category may go ahead only if staffing in the releasing unit is above a level set mainly for safety categories, and the approving officer must sign personally. For loco pilots, track maintainers, pointsmen and other safety staff, this can freeze releases. If the threshold is applied to every applicant alike, a challenge is unlikely to succeed. If it is waived for some, it is not.

Railway circulars change often. Check the current RBE on request transfers for your category before relying on any date here. Our page for railway employees covers other railway service issues.

Department of Posts: Rule 38 and Gramin Dak Sevaks

In the Department of Posts, a regular employee such as a Postal Assistant, Postman or MTS who wants to move to another division or circle applies for what is known as a Rule 38 transfer. It is one-way and on request, so the employee loses seniority in the old unit and joins at the bottom of the new one. Both units have to agree. The department has from time to time issued instructions on how these requests should be processed and how long a decision may take; ask your divisional office for the current ones.

Gramin Dak Sevaks have their own transfer provisions under the GDS rules and policy, with limits on how often a request can be made and in which situations. Disputes about GDS transfers are heard by CAT. Our page for postal employees and GDS covers this in more detail.

Tax departments, KVS, NVS and other cadres

In CBIC and CBDT, inspectors, tax assistants and others seeking to move between commissionerates or charges apply under board guidelines on inter-commissionerate or inter-charge transfers, which have been revised several times and tested in court. Seniority on such transfers has been litigated at length. Our guide on CBIC inter-commissionerate transfers sets out where that stands.

Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers move under the KVS transfer policy, where requests are ranked by points and the policy is revised frequently. Our guide on KVS transfer points explains how to check your count. Navodaya Vidyalaya staff have mutual and request transfer provisions of their own, covered in the guide on NVS transfers.

For IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service officers, inter-cadre transfer is permitted mainly on marriage to another all-India service officer and in limited hardship cases under DoPT's policy. These disputes are heard by CAT.

Mutual transfer: a faster route when someone wants your seat

If an employee of the same category in your preferred unit wants to come to yours, a mutual transfer may move faster than the register. Both employees apply together, both units agree, and neither unit loses strength. Many departments allow this outside the normal queue, which is why railway, postal and tax staff often search for a counterpart through union networks and HRMS listings.

Mutual transfers have their own conditions. Both posts must be in the same grade and category, both employees usually need a minimum period of service left before retirement, and neither should be under disciplinary proceedings. Seniority on a mutual transfer is fixed by the department's own rule, which is not always the same as for a one-way request. Ask for that rule in writing and read it before you sign, because a seniority position accepted at the time of a mutual transfer is very hard to reopen later.

A refusal of a mutual transfer that meets every condition, with no reason given, can be challenged in the same way as a refusal of a one-way request. A refusal because the counterpart does not qualify cannot.

The rules a request transfer case rests on

Employees with disability, and those caring for a disabled family member

DoPT instructions give employees with disabilities, and employees who are the main carer of a dependant with disability, preference in postings and exemption from routine rotational transfer, subject to administrative needs. These provisions also support a request to move to a place where treatment, a special school or family support is available. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 adds a statutory duty not to discriminate.

If your request rests on such a ground, say so clearly in the application and attach the disability certificate and medical papers. A request filed as an ordinary one may simply go into the register. Our guide on RPwD Act rights at work explains how these protections are applied.

Moving a stuck request: what to do and in what order

1. Confirm the request is actually registered

   Ask the personnel or establishment branch for written confirmation of your registration date, number and category. Many employees learn years later that the application never reached the register.

2. Collect the release orders

   Gather every release or transfer order for your category to your preferred destination since you applied. Colleagues, union notice boards and HRMS often have them. If not, ask under RTI.

3. Compare dates

   Make a simple table: each released employee, their registration date, and the date of release. If juniors were released before you, note whether any recorded exception applied.

4. Send a focused representation

   Through proper channel, quote your registration, list the releases out of turn and ask for release in your turn or a written reason. Our page on representations under Section 20 explains why this matters later.

5. Wait a reasonable time, then act

   If there is no reply in a few months, or the reply gives no real reason, consider an Original Application. Do not let the refusal sit for more than a year.

6. Keep working normally

   Do not refuse duties or take leave to force the issue. Absence while waiting for a transfer becomes a separate disciplinary problem and weakens the case.

What the tribunal will order, and what it will not

In most request transfer cases that succeed, the tribunal directs the department to consider the employee's request in accordance with the policy and his position in the register, within a fixed time, and to pass a reasoned order. Where juniors were released out of turn, it may direct that the applicant be released in the next available slot. It rarely orders a transfer outright, since that depends on vacancies and staff needs that the department must assess.

Interim orders are uncommon in these cases. The tribunal is unlikely to direct an immediate transfer while the case is pending. It may, where a release list is about to be issued, direct that the applicant's case be considered along with it.

If you are unhappy with a transfer you did not ask for, that is a different kind of case, discussed on our page on transfer orders against the policy.

Time and cost for a request transfer dispute

Documents to have ready

• Your request transfer application with the date of submission and any acknowledgement
• The letter or HRMS entry showing your registration number and date
• The transfer policy, circular or manual provision in force at each relevant date
• Release orders for your category and destination since you applied
• Any consent or no-objection from the receiving unit
• Any refusal letter, or your request for reasons and the reply
• Undertaking you signed about seniority, if any
• Supporting papers for a spouse, medical or disability ground, if you rely on one
• Copies of your representation and proof of sending through proper channel

Which CAT bench hears your case

An Original Application is filed at the bench within whose area you are posted, or where the cause of action arose. For a request transfer, that is usually the bench for your current place of posting, since that is where the refusal to release you was made. A clerk in Bhusawal goes to the Mumbai bench; a postal assistant in Varanasi to the Allahabad bench; an inspector in a Delhi commissionerate to the Principal Bench.

If the refusal came from the receiving unit, for example a circle that declined to accept you, part of the cause of action may also arise there. Ask about this before filing, since the choice affects which High Court hears any later writ.

Employees of CAPF, PSUs and banks do not come to CAT. Their transfer disputes go to the High Court under the rules of their organisation, as our page on CAPF, PSU and bank service writs explains.

Mistakes that weaken a request transfer case

• Arguing only hardship. The tribunal sympathises with family needs but decides on the policy. Lead with the register and the releases out of turn.
• Writing over your office's head. Letters to ministers or Board members bypassing your branch can bring a conduct problem and do not help the case.
• Reminders instead of action. A dozen reminders over five years do not stop time running from the first clear refusal.
• Not proving the register position. Without written confirmation of where you stood, comparisons with others are guesswork.
• Withdrawing and reapplying. Some employees withdraw a request in frustration and reapply later, losing their place. Do not withdraw without advice.
• Refusing bottom seniority after release. If the rules require it, contesting it after you have accepted the transfer seldom succeeds.

Group A, B and C employees: how the picture differs

Most request transfer disputes concern Group C staff, because their cadres are divisional or circle-based and movement between them is a transfer of cadre. For Group B officers, cadres are often zonal or all-India, and a request may be a posting within the same cadre rather than a cadre change, which avoids the seniority loss but leaves more discretion with the cadre controlling authority.

Group A officers of organised services are usually in all-India cadres and are posted under the service's own policy. A request for a particular station is handled as a posting request. For all-India service officers, inter-cadre transfer is narrower still, as explained in our guide on IAS and IPS cadre issues.

Advocate B.K. Singh asks employees at the start which group and cadre they belong to and who controls that cadre. The answer decides which policy applies and which officer's decision is under challenge.

If the transfer finally comes: things to check before you move

Once a release order comes, read it before accepting. Check the seniority clause, the date by which you must join, whether transfer travelling allowance and joining time are allowed (for own-request transfers they usually are not, or only in part), and whether your lien in the old cadre ends on joining.

If your circumstances have changed and you no longer want to move, a request to withdraw before you are relieved is usually considered. After relief, return is generally not possible. Do not ignore a release order; joining late without permission can become an unauthorised absence matter.

Getting advice on a stuck request

Bring your application, the register confirmation, the release orders you have found and any refusal. Advocate B.K. Singh will look first at whether the policy was applied to you as it was to others, and tell you plainly whether a case is worth filing or whether the next cycle is a better bet. Fees are discussed at the first meeting and agreed in writing.

For advice on your papers or for updates on the law, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.