Chandigarh, Oct 8: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that a Haryana government employee cannot be denied transfer merit benefits simply because her spouse is posted at a Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) facility located across state lines in Punjab.
A bench headed by Justice Harpreet Singh Brar directed the Haryana government to allocate 10 “Couple Case Merit Points” to an assistant professor under the ‘Model Online Transfer Policy, 2026’. The petitioner, currently serving at Government College in Ratia (Fatehabad), had seen her couple case marks recorded as ‘zero’ on grounds that her husband was posted at Nangal in Punjab’s Ropar district. However, the court emphasized that her husband holds a substantive Haryana cadre post under the state’s earmarked quota in the Irrigation and Water Resources Department.
Accepting the petition, Justice Brar observed that if an employee posted in a BBMB Haryana quota post in Chandigarh receives transfer merit points, denying the same benefit to an employee posted in Nangal solely due to geographical location is irrational. The High Court directed authorities to recalculate the petitioner’s total score and reconsider her transfer application at the earliest.
