In a relief to a sub-inspector of Border Security Force (BSF), the High Court of Karnataka has set aside his posting to Kashmir during the fag end of his service when he was given posting in Bengaluru in 2018 after noticing his medical condition and the status of his wife, who is a cancer patient from past 12 years.
“The BSF ought to have deployed a streak of sympathy in the peculiar facts of the case of the petitioner, notwithstanding the fact that the petitioner being a part of the battalion will have to move once the battalion moves,” the court said while setting aside his posting order issued in January 2021.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Shivaji B. Bajantri of BSF’s 162 Battalion at Yelahanka.
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The court noted from the rule 11 of the Border Security Force (Tenure of posting and Deputation) Rules, 2000, that a personnel placed in low medical category gets protection from deployment in extreme hard or hard area and are required to be posted in a normal area or a static formation based on recommendations of the medical board.
As the petitioner has already been downgraded to lower medical category due to his health status, the court said he gets protection from the rules from posting to an extreme hard or hard area.
The court also pointed out that the rules also state that personnel of the BSF having good record of service and free from disciplinary/vigilance angles may be given posting near their home town two years before attaining the age of superannuation. The petitioner, the court said, “In terms of the rules, at the outset, was entitled to continue in Bangalore for a period of three years, and according to rule 10 he is insulated from transfer/movement as he is admittedly due to retire in the month of May 2022.”
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The posting of petitioner is clearly in violation of the rules, apart from being contrary to the medical reasons, to ensuring proper treatment to his wife at government’s Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bengaluru, for which he was posted here in 2018, the court said.