CAT quashes Wankhede’s transfer, says revenue dept ‘violated’ norms

Sameer Wankhede. File pic

The Central Administrative Tribunal has set aside the transfer of IRS officer Sameer Wankhede from Mumbai to Chennai, saying the revenue department "patently violated" its own transfer guidelines. Wankhede, a 2008 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, made headlines for allegedly demanding R25 crore from Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's family by threatening to implicate his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case during his tenure in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai in 2021.

The principal CAT bench comprising Justice Ranjit More and member Rajinder Kashyap found procedural lapses and potential bias in the transfer decision issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. The tribunal said while government officers had an all-India service liability, transfer policies must be implemented in a fair, transparent, and just manner.

"We are well aware of the facts that it is a settled law that a transfer, which is an incident of service, is not to be interfered with by the courts unless it is shown to be clearly arbitrary or vitiated by mala fides or infraction of any professed norm or principle governing the transfer. However, the actions of respondents are such which do not fall within the policy framework laid by themselves," CAT's February 20 order said.

The bench said the judgments cited by the revenue department wouldn't come to its rescue for it had "patently violated" the guidelines while transferring Wankhede. "With utmost restraint, we refrain from imposing the cost on the respondents. It is held that the transfer of the applicant is not in consonance with the new Transfer/Placement Guidelines, 2018 for Indian Revenue Service (C&CE) Officers issued by the respondents dated 12th April 2018," it added.

Wankhede is currently working as additional commissioner in the Department of Revenue in Chennai following his transfer on May 30, 2022. He previously held the zonal director's position in the Mumbai NCB before his transfer. Wankhede alleged his transfer was punitive in nature and a direct consequence of his actions at the NCB, claiming he and his family members received multiple death threats from the underworld.

His representations seeking reconsideration of the transfer, including one on June 6, 2022, and another on July 18, 2024, were rejected by the authorities. Wankhede was involved in several high-profile cases, including the arrest of Sameer Khan, son-in-law of a former Maharashtra cabinet minister, in a drug-related case. Following these events, an inquiry was initiated against him by a special enquiry team on June 16, 2022.

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