HYDERABAD: Counsel for Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Thursday told the High Court that PK Mohanty applied for voluntary retirement in the middle of the division exercise on June 1, 2014, to avoid being included in the list of officers to be divided between the two States.
Senior counsel DV Seetarama Murthy, appearing for Somesh Kumar, submitted to the court that Mohanty had retired on February 28, 2014, four months prior to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, but was given four months extension which was to end on June 30. However, he opted for VRS in the midst of the division exercise.
Murthy told the bench headed by Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and S Nanda that the voluntary retirement of Mohanty as the last Chief Secretary of undivided Andhra Pradesh a day before the bifurcation of the State was a joke played on the system.
His voluntary retirement had a cascading effect on the distribution of all India Service Officers between the two States, Murthy said. He said that Mohanty's voluntary retirement was absurd and a person who is on an extended service taking VRS is illogical and against the basic principles of service law.
The bench was hearing a batch of cases filed by the IAS and IPS officers aggrieved with the methods followed while dividing the cadre. Mohanty sitting in the Pratyush Sinha committee to oversee the division exercise was another flaw, as his inclusion in this advisory panel vitiated the entire process, Murthy said. He argued that the entire set of guidelines was illegal.
Mohanty, was one of the members of the Pratyush Sinha Committee, despite the fact that his daughter Swetha Mohanty and son-in-law also being on the list of officers to be allocated between the two states. Under these circumstances the Centre continued Mohanty as a member of the panel was a blatant violation of the guidelines, he added.