HYDERABAD: Additional Solicitor General T Suryakaran Reddy, who represents the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), argued in the Telangana High Court on Tuesday that the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has no authority to pass an order that the Telangana government should accommodate Somesh Kumar, who is serving as Chief Secretary now.
“If CAT found fault with the guidelines of Pratyush Sinha Committee, it could have remanded the issue back to the Central government, which is the cadre controlling authority,” Suryakaran Reddy argued.
He further informed the court that the order issued by CAT directing the Telangana government to accommodate Somesh Kumar was extended to all other 14 All India Service officers, who are at present serving in Telangana and this is contrary to AIS rules.
An HC bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice S Sanda continued hearings on a writ petition filed by the DoPT challenging the order of CAT allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana. Replying to the question posed by the court, the Additional SG pointed out that CAT had erred in allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana.
Somesh Kumar was allotted to Andhra Pradesh by the Pratyush Sinha committee in 2014. The former challenged the allocation before CAT and got his allotment quashed in 2016. The Union government filed an appeal against this CAT order in 2017. Arguing the case, he said that CAT had relied heavily on unreliable contentions raised by Somesh Kumar. Though he did not raise those contentions in his representation to the Central government, he raised them before the tribunal.
He said Somesh Kumar’s first objection was the non-inclusion of PK Mohanty, then chief secretary of the erstwhile state of AP in the list of bureaucrats to be divided between Telangana and AP on June 1, 2014. His inclusion in the Pratyush Sinha Advisory Committee as a member was also objected to.
PK Mohanty’s retirement
The Additional SG, defending the DoPT, said that Mohanty’s name was not included in the list of bureaucrats because he was retiring on midnight of June 1, 2014. He would not have been available to serve any of the states from June 2, 2014. There was no point in including his name in the division list and hence his name was not included. There was no bias in the stand taken by the Central government, he added. The writ was adjourned to April 4 for submissions of the senior counsel representing Somesh Kumar.
‘Ridiculous allegations by Somesh Kumar’
Refuting Somesh Kumar’s allegations, the Centre’s counsel said that it was ridiculous to describe former CS PK Mohanty as an interested party because his daughter and son-in-law were also there in the list of bureaucrats. The division of officers happened in tune with the guidelines framed by the committee but not in tune with the whims and fancies of any single officer, Suryakaran Reddy said.