HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court on Monday granted an interim stay on the Central Administrative Tribunal’s June 24 order allowing senior IAS officer Amrapali Kata to remain in the Telangana cadre. The bench directed her to file a counter-affidavit and posted the case for hearing after six weeks.
Amrapali had moved the CAT challenging the DoPT’s October 2024 order allocating her to the Andhra Pradesh cadre, arguing that it violated service rules and ignored prior administrative arrangements. The tribunal, after examining a cadre-swapping arrangement, ruled in her favour and set aside the DoPT’s order.
The DoPT appealed in the high court, contending that the swapping formula was wrongly applied, had no legal basis and could not involve IAS officer C Harikiran, who belongs to a reserved category.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin, granted four weeks for counter-affidavits and an additional two weeks for the Centre’s reply. The court also permitted the Union government to place further documents on record, including the Pratyush Sinha Committee report.