Transfer Policy Guidelines dated 17.01.2019 – Revised Procedure / Timeline for Submission & Consideration of Transfer under Rule 38 or otherwise

No. X-12/6/2021-SPN-II(2)
Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg
New Delhi – 110001
December 31st, 2021

To,

a) All Chief Postmaster General
b) Chief General Manager, PLI / Parcel / BD Directorate
c) Chief General Manager, CEPT / Director RAKNPA / Director of all PTCs
d) Addl. Director General Army Postal Service
e) All General Manager (Finance) / Director Postal Accounts / DDAP

Subject: Transfer Policy Guidelines dated 17.01.2019

Madam / Sir

2. This procedure / timeline have been reviewed and revised procedure / timeline is enclosed at Appendix -I.

3. Above modifications may be brought to the notice of all concerned for timely implementation.

4. Director (SPN) will be the nodal officer for implementation of revised system who can be contacted at Tel no. 011 – 23096092 for any clarification. In Circles, the DPS(HQ) concerned will be the nodal officer.

Yours faithfully,

(Muthuraman C)
Assistant Director General (SPN)

APPENDIX – I

Procedure for Submission / Consideration of Transfer under Rule 38 or otherwise

Para-3(C) of Transfer Policy Guidelines, circulated vide communication No. 141- 14112013-SPB-II dated 17.01.2019, as amended from  time  to time, shall  be substituted by the following:

1. An application for Inter-Circle / Intra-Circle transfer under Rule 38 in Form – I duly signed by the official shall be submitted to the Head of the Division / Unit where the official is posted. Advance copy of request shall not be sent to the Authority where transfer is sought.
2. Application (PDF format) can be submitted through eMail also. All Divisions / Units shall give wide publicity of official email id of the Division / Unit where an  official can send request for transfer under Rule-38.
3. Submission of Application and Order of Priority :-
   1. An official who fulfills the stipulated conditions as circulated from time to time for transfer under Rule-38, may apply at any time as per his convenience in the manner provided above. The system of submitting applications during the specified window is dispensed with.
   2. Date and time of receipt of completed application in the Division / Unit shall be the reference point for determining the order of priority of all such applications.
   3. In case of tie in date and time of receipt of application date of joining in the present cadre shall be considered for deciding order of priority. If still there is a tie, date of birth shall be considered for deciding order of priority.
   4. Applications received during a month shall be arranged cadre-wise, as per date and time of receipt.
   5. However, application received from (i) officials with benchmark disability (ii) officials appointed under compassionate grounds and (iii) official / dependant family members suffering from terminal illness in this order shall be placed at the top of the list of the requests received during a month irrespective of date on which such request was received. Among such applicants, date and time of receipt of applications shall be the base to decide priority and in case of tie, the procedure mentioned in (c) and (d) above will be followed.
   6. Applications received from officials who do not fulfill the eligibility criteria as on the date of application shall be rejected outright.
4. Divisional Cadre officials including Postal Assistant of Postal Division and Sorting Assistant of RMS Divisions may give choice of a maximum of ten (10) Divisions / Units of one Circle in order of preference. In such cases transfer will be considered for any one of the indicated Divisions / Units in order of preference and if she/he is not  accommodated in the requested  Divisions  / Units,  she/he  will  be  kept  under waiting list for consideration subsequently.
5. In case of Circle cadre officials like PA(CO/RO), PA(SBCO), Inspector Posts, ASP, etc.  will indicate only name of the Circle where transfer is sought.
6. If an official, who is already on waiting list based on previous request, submits a fresh application / revised application then she/ he  will forfeit her/his seniority based on previous requests and such fresh / revised application shall be considered afresh.
7. Divisional  Cadre official  whose transfer request is already on the waiting  list at the time of coming into  force  of these  revised  guidelines, may  submit revised  request indicating preference  for 10 Divisions of the same Circle within one (l) month from the date of coming into force of these revised  guidelines and in such case, the official shall retain his original priority. [Change of Circle shall be treated as a fresh request. Requests received after the stipulated time period shall be treated as fresh requests.]
8. Part-II of Form – I shall be completed after verifying the service particulars of the official. Printout of the application in Form – I received in Division / Unit through eMail shall be taken, and Part-II shall be completed.
9. Application(s) received during a month and found completed in all respects shall be forwarded to the Head of Circle latest by 5th day of the following month  through eMail (in PDF Format). While forwarding the applications Division / Unit Head shall also forward   following statements:-
   1. List of officials seeking Intra-Circle Transfer
   2. List of Officials seeking Inter-Circle Transfer – arranged Circle-wise
   3. Vacancy Position in each grade [(i) Actual  vacancy in case of PA/SA, (ii) Category-wise and recruitment  mode-wise  vacancy  in  other cases.]
10. After receipt of list of applications from all Divisions / Units, Circle shall arrange the applications as provided in Point (iii) hereinabove to decide the Priority List for consideration of transfer.
11. Inter-Circle transfer requests shall be sent by the Circle by 10th of the month through eMail alongwith copy of relevant Form-I to Circle(s) concerned for preparation of Priority List in other Circle(s).
12. Priority List shall be prepared  in the following manner:-
    1. Two separate Priority Lists shall be prepared – one for Intra-Circle and another for Inter-Circle – for each cadre.
    2. Applications received during a month will be arranged in the manner provided in Point (iii) hereinabove and shall be added to the respective waiting list brought forward from previous month.  [This  process  shall  be  repeated  for  subsequent months where fresh requests shall be added below the requests in the Priority List for the previous month.]
13. Preparation of Priority List for the first time as per these revised guidelines:-
    1. Transfer requests considered during the year 2021 (where transfers would be effective only after 01.01.2022) should not be decided and transfer orders may not be issued. ln case, wherever transfer orders have been issued by any of the Circle, the same stands withdrawn / cancelled.
    2. Priority list prepared during year 2021 (including transfers approved and orders stands withdrawn as per para (a) above) shall be kept freezed in the same order of priority , which shall be split/prepared into two parts viz. Intra-Circle transfer priority list and Inter-Circle priority list.
    3. Thereafter, requests received after these new guidelines coming into force shall be added bel ow the respective starting Priority List as mentioned at (a) above.
14. Updation of Intra-Circle Priority List shall be completed by 10th of the month. Similarly, Preparation of Inter-Circle Priority List shall be completed by 20th of the month.
15. Assessment of vacancy for considering Transfer  Request:-
    1. Based on the information received from Division / Unit, as per Point-(ix)(c) above, and information available in the Circle Office Division / Unit – wise vacancy for each category / mode of appointment available for transfer shall be prepared by the Circle Office.
    2. Vacancy already reported to Staff Selection Commission for Direct Recruitment and vacancy notified / calculated for recruitment through examination conducted by the Department shall be excluded while deciding the available vacancy as at (a)above.
    3. Circle shall assess vacancy for recruitment year 2022, i.e. for the period 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2022 and distribute it amongst various modes of recruitment and with in each mode amongst various categories as prescribed. Vacancies thus arrived will be freezed for reporting for various modes of recruitment.
    4. As these vacancies are forecasted, the vacancies would not be available on O 1.0 l.2022, but will arise in subsequent months of year 2022. Hence, monthly cycle of transfer willl operate to cover foreseen as well as unforeseen vacancies arisen during preceding month.
    5. Vacancies freezed as mentioned in (c) above, shall be read ily available for reporting to SSC or notification of LGO examination by all Circle. However, Circle shall continue considering transfer against vacancies becoming available till preceding month. This process shall be repeated till vacancies of December, 2022 is taken into account for transfer purpose.
    6. After completing the activities mentioned above, Circle shall calculate vacancies that arose during year 2022 and remained unfilled even after considering all inward transfer requests. Since Inter-Circle transfer request shall be allowed for appointed officials only, at end of the recruitment year, there shall be change in vacancies for each of the Circle, but the vacancie in total for all Circles combined together  shall  not  undergo  any  change  (except  for  addition of unforeseen vacancies)
    7. Final vacancy figure a on 31.12.2022 shall be reported to Directorate by 15th January of next year as a final vacancy position which will not undergo any further change.
    8. Aforesaid procedure shall be repeated for each recruitment year.
16. After preparation of Intra-Circle Priority List, taking into consideration the vacancy position assessed as above, Circle shall release approved list of Intra-Circle transfer indicating the Division / Unit by 15th of the month.
17. After deciding the approved list of Intra-Circle transfer, Circle shall consider Inter­ Circle transfer requests. After taking into consideration the  vacancies  available accommodation report for officials who can be accommodated indicating the Division / Unit and  waiting list number in other cases shall  be communicated to Circle (s) concerned by 20th of the month.
18. After receipt of accommodation report from other Circle (s), Circle shall release approved list of Inter-Circle transfer indicating the Division / Unit of posting and communicate to all concerned by 25th of the month.
19. Officials  approved  for  both Intra-Circle  transfer  and  Inter-Circle  transfer,  shall  be relieved by 20th of the following month to join the new unit. In case any official approved for transfer is not relieved, reasons thereof and likely date of relieving may be communicated to Head of Circle. Thereafter, Circle Office shall inform concerned Circle / Division / Unit.
20. Relieving of the official shall not be denied solely on ground of shortage of staff if working strength of the cadre in the Division / Unit is not less than 66.66%. This shall be observed only while relieving the official on transfer and not while forwarding transfer request to Circle Office. However, Head of  Circle  shall  be  competent  to relieve an  official, whose request for transfer under Rule-38 (both inter-circle and intra-circle) has been approved, even  if the working strength of a Division / Unit is less than 66.66% of the sanctioned  strength, on case to case basis in very deserving cases only.
21. Requests of transfer under Rule 38 can be considered / approved by the competent authority even during the pendency of any vigilance case / disciplinary proceedings against an official. However, the controlling officer shall not relieve an official approved for transfer till disciplinary proceedings are concluded.
22. An official approved for transfer under Ru le-38 may submit a written request to the controlling officer to delay the relieving.  In such cases, a maxim um of 90 days may be allowed. [n case the official requests for more than 90 days, she . he shall forfeit the right to avail the approved transfer. However, such an official may submit fresh request.
23. All communications relating to transfer under Rule-38 shall be made through eMails so as to adhere to the stipulated timeline.
24. Approved list of transfer and waiting list (both Intra-Circle and Inter-Circle) shall be published  on the  website of Department of Posts as well as Circle concerned. These lists shall be updated  after every cycle of transfer, by last day of the month.
25. Illustration for carrying out different activities of Inward / Outward  transfer requests is enclosed.