The Telangana High Court on Thursday began hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by Union government challenging the directions of Central Administrative Tribunal-Hyderabad batch setting aside allocation of 15 All India Service officers, including Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, to Andhra Pradesh cadre.
These AIS officers were allocated to Andhra Pradesh cadre following creation of separate Telangana State out of the erstwhile undivided AP State in 2014. Challenging their allotment to AP cadre, these officers moved the CAT-Hyderabad bench.
After hearing contentions of their counsels, the tribunal delivered verdict setting aside their allocation to AP cadre. As a result, they were continuing their services with Telangana cadre. Meanwhile, the Department of Personnel and Training of the Union government which had allocated the AIS officers of erstwhile AP State to the residuary AP State and the newly created Telangana State, moved Telangana HC seeking suspension of the CAT directions.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Surepalli Nanda began hearing the writ petitions filed by Department of Personnel and Training. Additional Solicitor General Indrakaran Reddy, appearing for the Union of India, presented his contentions in the writ petition challenging the tribunal order allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana cadre.
The ASG contended that the Central government was empowered to distribute AIS officers among the States and the DoPT was the cadre-controlling authority. The allotment of AIS officers to AP and Telangana was made based on the guidelines framed by a five-member committee constituted by the DoPT. Since the allocation was made in tune with the AP Reorganisation Act and based on the guidelines framed by the five-member committee, the tribunal should not have set aside the allocation of officers, the ASG said.
The arguments would continue on Friday.
