Telangana High Court on Wednesday remanded the issue of allocation of 13 All India Service officers to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh back to the Department of Personnel and Training of the Union government.
A bench of Justices Abhinand Kumar Shavili and N. Rajeshwar Rao, disposing of 13 writ petitions filed by the DoPT challenging the orders issued by Central Administrative Tribunal-Hyderabad allocating them to Telangana, directed the officers concerned to make detailed representations to the DoPT explaining their grievances. The bench said the DoPT would examine each case of the officers separately and take a call in accordance with the guidelines framed by the Pratyusha Sinha Committee. The DoPT should give a personal hearing to each of the officer before taking a final call on the matter, the bench said.
The bench noted that it had considered the rival submissions of the parties in the matter and perused records. Earlier in a similar matter, a bench of the HC headed by the then Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda pronounced verdict stating that the CAT-Hyderabad had erred in interfering with the matter of the allocation of AIS officers to a State and allocation of the then Chief Secretary of Telangana Somesh Kumar (who was allotted to AP by the DoPT) to Telangana. The bench had set aside the CAT order allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana following which he had been sent to AP.
The writ petitions filed by the DoPT pertained to 10 IAS officers: Hari Kiran, G. Anantha Ramu, M. Prashanti, Karuna Vakati, A. Vani Prasad, Ronald Rose, Srijana Gummalla, Sham Sher Singh Rawat, Amrapali Katta, Shiva Shankar Lotheti and three IPS officers: Anjani Kumar, Abhilasha Bisht and Abhishek Mohanty. The three IPS officers are presently serving as DG Road Safety Authority, RBVRR Telangana State Police Academy and Karimnagar Police Commissioner. While Hari Kiran, Srijana Gummalla and Shiva Shankar Lotheti were originally allotted to Telangana, the remaining 10 AIS officers were allocated to AP.
They moved CAT-Hyderabad which passed orders allocating the three officers (who were allotted to Telangana) to AP and the other officers to Telangana. Challenging these CAT directions, the DoPT filed writ petitions in the HC. The bench said the AIS officers deserved to be reconsideration about allocation to a State strictly in accordance with the guidelines of the Pratyusha Sinha Committee.
