Employee\'s job cannot be downgraded on being transferred: HC

An employee's job status cannot be downgraded on being transferred, the Delhi High Court has said while quashing Air India's decision of demoting a cabin crew member after she was transferred from Mumbai to Delhi. "An order of transfer cannot deprive anyone of the existing right. If order of transfer substantially affect the status of an employee, the same would be violative of conditions of service and thus will not be sustainable and transfer must be made to an equivalent post," Justice Sunil Kumar said. The Court's order came on a petition filed by Chitra Sharma challenging the decision of Airline Allied Services Ltd (AASL), a subsidiary unit of Air India, which had demoted her from the post of check cabin crew to cabin crew on being transferred from Mumbai to Delhi on compassionate ground. Justice Kumar, while quashing the decision of the airline, directed that Sharma be appointed to the same post she was holding before being transferred. "The respondent (AASL) is directed to appoint Sharma to the post of check cabin crew from the date of the transfer," the Court said in its ruling. Sharma, who has been working for the airline for the last 12 years, was holding the post of check cabin crew in Mumbai. She was transferred to Delhi in 2005 but after working for six months she was demoted to the post of cabin crew on the ground that there was no vacancy for the post she was holding in Mumbai. The Court after perusing the record found that these post are different in status and an employee can't be given lower status job on being transferred from one city to another. By Ms.Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury

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