Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that it cannot interfere in the transfer of employees serving under Red Cross Haryana, as the rules governing their service are not statutory in nature.“Rules have only been approved by the Governor, in his role as the president of the Indian Red Cross Society/St. John Ambulance, State Branch Haryana. As such, it is clear that these rules were merely meant for internal administration and not to create an enforceable right,” the HC held.Justice Harpreet Singh Brar passed these orders while dismissing two petitions filed by Ishank Kaushik and Sanjeev Kumar, who contested their transfers within the Haryana state branch of the Red Cross, alleging arbitrariness, repeated relocations and personal hardship. Kaushik, a district training officer appointed in 2017, argued that frequent transfers over the years lacked administrative justification and violated service norms applicable to district-level posts. The petitioners also contended that the Red Cross, given its public welfare role and statutory backing under the Indian Red Cross Society Act, should be subject to judicial review in such matters.However, Justice Brar observed that while Red Cross performed public functions, the service conditions of its district-level employees were governed by non-statutory internal rules. As a result, disputes arising from employment contracts do not carry a “public law element” necessary to invoke writ jurisdiction. “The relationship between the petitioner and the respondent-society is essentially contractual in nature,” the court observed, recording that internal service rules lacking statutory force cannot be enforced through writ proceedings.HC explained that to invoke its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, it must be established that the rules governing the service conditions of the petitioner are statutory in nature. “Section 5 of the Indian Red Cross Society, 1920, bestows rulemaking powers, exercising which, the ,anaging committee of the Indian Red Cross Society framed Indian Red Cross Society Branch Committee Rules, 2017, as notified on Dec 15, 2017. These rules, undoubtedly, are statutory in nature but do not provide for service conditions of the employees of the district branches. However, the rules relied on by the petitioner, ie Indian Red Cross Society/St. John Ambulance (India), District Red Cross Branch Staff Rules, 2017, notified on Feb 27, 2017, have not been framed by exercising a statutory rulemaking power. Writ jurisdiction of this court can only be invoked if the rules governing the service of the petitioner are statutory in nature,” the HC held, dismissing the petitions.
