PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has ruled that an official on deputation can be repatriated to his parent department anytime without assigning any reason prior to completion of his normal tenure.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Shakeel Ahmad issued the order while rejecting plea of an assistant professor, challenging his repatriation to higher education department from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Frontier Education Foundation, where he was posted as deputy director (administration) on deputation in 2021.

“So far as, the right of a ‘deputationist’ to complete his normal tenure is concerned, the same has never been recognised by courts. It is well settled by now that deputationist has no right to remain on a post as deputationist, he can be repatriated at anytime without assigning any reason,” the bench observed.

“In terms of Civil Servants Act, either federal or provincial, a civil servant is liable to serve anywhere throughout the province or Pakistan, as the case may be, he cannot claim posting of his own choice at a particular post,” the bench observed.

Bench rejects plea of educationist against repatriation from FEF

The court further states: “In fact, we have seen that the expertise of such civil servants are spoiled when they are specialists in teaching and are posted against an administrative post, and experience has shown that such deputationists often opt for deputation to other departments when they once complete their normal tenure.”

The bench ruled: “The deputation is an administrative arrangement between the borrowing and lending departments for utilising the services of an employee in the public interest and exigency of services against a particular post, and such deputationists cannot be allowed to remain on deputation for an indefinite period or stipulated period by his own whims and wishes. The law on this point is very much clear.”

The petition was filed by Shahid Gul, who was initially appointed as lecturer (BPS-17) in higher education department on the recommendation of KP Public Service Commission in 2012 and was then promoted to the post of assistant professor (BPS-18) in December 2022.

His counsel stated that the petitioner was posted as deputy director (admin) on deputation through a notification on October 12, 2021, in KP Frontier Education Foundation.

He said that the petitioner had filed a complaint against an acting managing director of the foundation for misusing his authority and committing certain irregularities. He added that an inquiry was conducted by provincial inspection team wherein the director and some others were found involved in certain irregularities.

The counsel claimed that the director firstly transferred the petitioner form the post of deputy director and then repatriated his services in April 2024 to his parent department, where he was posted as assistant professor of political science at a government degree college.

He contended that repatriation of the petitioner was based on mala-fide and was without any justification. He said that although the respondent department had the power to repatriate the petitioner, yet such powers should be exercised in good faith.

The bench observed that Frontier Education Foundation was a corporate body created under KP Frontier Education Foundation Act, 1992, for promoting and financing the development of education in the private sector in the province.

“We have observed that in numerous cases instead of allowing promotion to employees of autonomous bodies and without adhering to recruitment rules of those autonomous bodies, the government sends civil servants on deputation against the promotion posts or the posts meant for initial recruitment,” the bench observed.

The benched said when recruitment rules didn’t permit filling of a post through deputation, sending a civil servant to such post was a source of heart burning for servants serving in the organisation on one hand, and on the other it militated the statutory law of that organisation.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2024