HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the Telangana government to file counter affidavit on a petition filed challenging an Ordinance issued by it to transfer the cases pertaining to service matters of Telangana government employees from Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (APAT) to the High Court.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A Shankar Narayana was dealing with a petition by G Jayashree, a contract lecturer, challenging the Ordinance No 5/2016 issued on Sept 29, 2016.
Petitioner’s counsel PV Krishnaiah submitted that the Central government has deleted the Telangana state from the jurisdiction of the APAT on Sept 15, 2016 following the request of the state government. The deletion has caused severe hardships to hundreds of employees, including the petitioner, as her service matter was pending before the APAT prior to Sept 15, he pointed out. The counsel contended that the state government has no power to issue the Ordinance by transferring the cases to High Court, under the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985.
When the bench sought the response of TS advocate general K Ramkrishna Reddy, the AG asked for some time to file the counter affidavit. Following the request, the bench granted a week time for filing the counter affidavit and adjourned the case hearing to next Monday. According to the state, the total number of cases pending before the APAT as on Sept 9, 2015 was 17,554, and out of these 8,937 belong to AP and 8,617 cases to Telangana.