High Court stays transfer of first ‘Colonel couple’

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 15

The first “colonel couple” in the Army is dogged by transfer woes as the husband and wife, both officers in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Department, have been posted to far-off places.

From their present place of posting at Jodhpur, Col Amit Kumar has been posted to Port Blair, while his wife Anu Dogra, who picks up her rank of Colonel this month, will move to Bathinda. They are the first couple to serve in the JAG Department. There are many other couples serving together in the forces, but not at the rank of Colonel so far.

In a petition that came up for hearing before the Delhi HC today, Colonel Kumar averred that the posting orders, issued by Army Headquarters, were arbitrary and in complete violation of the standard operating procedure on the subject.

A Division Bench, comprising Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Justice Asha Menon, stayed the posting orders till further directions and sought a detailed response from the Army in this regard.

The petitioner had contended that the basic criteria of spouse posting, especially in case where both husband and wife happen to be serving officers, was not taken into consideration, which was a violation of service norms as well as in contravention of the Supreme Court directives.

Further, while issuing the posting order for officers of the rank of selection grade colonel and above, the order of preference of station submitted by the officer concerned ought to be considered, but no such recommendation was sought from him.

He has also stated that certain events transpired during the course of their present posting, due to which he had filed a statutory complaint against senior officers.

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