An employee’s cadre designation cannot be altered through a transfer order without due process.

The applicant was appointed as a Meter Reader in the Military Engineering Services in 2016 and was re-designated as a Store and Revenue Assistant (SRA) with effect from 15 December 2017 under the first cadre review. He was thereafter shown as an SRA in his service and movement records.

On 2 July 2025, the respondents transferred him from Garrison Engineer (EP), Jodhpur to Garrison Engineer (Army), Jamnagar, describing him as a Meter Reader. The applicant challenged the transfer order, contending that the respondents had changed his designation without a separate order or an opportunity to be heard.

The respondents maintained that the cadre review had been kept in abeyance and that the transfer caused no reduction in pay; they also relied on the subsequent placement of the applicant in the Meter Reader cadre. The Tribunal had granted interim relief on 19 September 2025.

Whether the respondents could describe the applicant as a Meter Reader in the transfer order, despite his existing re-designation as an SRA, without a separate order changing his cadre.

Whether changing the applicant’s cadre in connection with the transfer, without giving him an opportunity to be heard, was lawful.

The Tribunal applied the principles that an employee’s existing designation or cadre cannot be altered without lawful authority, and that administrative action affecting an employee’s status must comply with the principles of natural justice, including an opportunity to be heard.

The Tribunal held that the stay and direction to maintain status quo did not, by themselves, authorise the respondents to undo the applicant’s 2017 re-designation.

The Tribunal found that the respondents had not disputed the applicant’s re-designation as an SRA effective from 15 December 2017.

Although the cadre-review dispute was pending before the Delhi High Court, the stay of the Principal Bench’s order did not create authority for the respondents to treat the applicant as a Meter Reader.

No separate order placing him in that cadre had been made; instead, the change was reflected in the transfer order and later in his service record while the O.A. was pending. The Tribunal therefore held that the respondents had changed his cadre without authority and without an opportunity to be heard, rendering the action unlawful.

It made its interim order of 19 September 2025 absolute and disposed of any pending miscellaneous application.