Husband and wife can be posted together: Railway Board clarifies 5 new rules for posting of couples

The August 5 order supersedes all earlier instructions on the subject, including those issued on October 1, 1971, January 6, 1988, December 6, 1995, November 5, 1997, and February 2, 2010.

The Railway Board's directive has clarified five new rules applicable to five categories of situations.

"The husband and wife, if working in the same department and if the required level of post is available, should invariably be posted together, ensuring that one of them does not work as subordinate to the other, in order to enable them to lead a normal family life and look after the welfare of their children especially till the children attain 18 years of age," the Board said.

The reference to children up to 18 years is linked to the Child Care Leave facility introduced on the basis of the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations.

The order also cited the Department of Personnel and Training's office memorandum No. 28034/9/2009-Estt(A) dated September 30, 2009, which stated that "where both spouses are in the same Central Service or working in the same department, and if posts at an appropriate level are available, they may mandatorily be posted at the same station, provided that no administrative problems are expected to arise as a consequence."

The order directed that "efforts may be made to post both the railway servants at the station where posts at appropriate level exist in the respective seniority units failing which requests for change of the category may be considered sympathetically."

The Board said ,"The Railway servant should be posted at station/place in the Railway/Division/PU in whose territorial jurisdiction the place/state of posting of his/her spouse falls, or as close to it as possible if there is no Railway organisation/post at the place/state of posting of the spouse."

The Railway servant should be posted at the station/place in the Railway/Division/PU in whose territorial jurisdiction the place/state of posting of his/her spouse falls. If it is not possible, if a request from the railway servant to the controlling Authority of the spouse for his/her posting at the place of posting of the railway servant is received, the same may be forwarded to the concerned authority for sympathetic consideration," the Board said.

"The railway servant may apply to the controlling Authority for a posting at the place of posting of his/her spouse which may be considered favourably by the competent authority. If no post is available for posting of the railway servant at the place of posting of the spouse he/she may be posted to a place closer to the place of posting of the spouse. If this also is not possible, an application from the railway servant for posting of the spouse who is working in the Central/State Public Sector Undertaking may be forwarded to the controlling authority of the spouse for his/her posting at or near the place of posting of the railway servant."

Complaints system

The order specifically addressed complaints about administrative authorities blocking such postings. Paragraph 5 of the order said, "Complaints are sometimes received that even if posts are available at the station of posting of the spouse, the administrative authorities do not accommodate the employees citing administrative reasons." It directs that "in all such cases, the cadre controlling authority should strive to post the employee at the station of spouse and in case of inability to do so, specific reasons, therefore, may be communicated to the employee."

The order also introduces an escalation mechanism. Under Paragraph 6, the Board said the "complaints against non-adherence to the instructions are decided by authorities at least one level above the authorities which took the original decision when they are below the SAG level/Head of PUs," and that "all such representations should be considered and disposed of in a time bound manner."

Each Divisional and Zonal Headquarters is required to maintain a separate register for recording transfer requests from railway servants seeking posting at their spouse's location, and these registers are to be "reviewed from time to time."

The order clarified that these instructions apply only to non-gazetted railway servants. Posting of gazetted officers will continue to be governed by Railway Board's letter No. E(O)III/2014/PL/05 dated August 31, 2015. Past cases decided under the earlier letter of February 2, 2010 "need not be reopened," the order said.