HYDERABAD: Five IAS officers — Vakati Karuna, Amrapali Kata, Srijana Gummala, A Vani Prasad and Ronald Rose — have approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Hyderabad, challenging the recent orders issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), rejecting their requests for cadre transfers.
These officers had sought to remain in their current states rather than return to the states to which they were originally allocated following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The CAT bench, comprising Dr Lata Baswaraj Patne (judicial member) and Shalini Misra (administrative member), will hear their applications. The officers have made the DoPT and chief secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respondents in the case.
The officers were initially allocated to their respective states in 2014 under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. Vakati Karuna, Amrapali Kata, A Vani Prasad and Ronald Rose were allocated to the AP cadre but have been working in Telangana.
Meanwhile, Srijana Gummala was assigned to the Telangana cadre but is currently working in Andhra Pradesh. All five officers are seeking to continue in their present states.
Following a decade-long legal battle, which included cases in both CAT and the Telangana High Court, the high court had directed the DoPT to reconsider the officers’ requests after hearing them personally. In compliance with these orders, the DoPT constituted a one-man committee under Deepak Khandekar to assess the officers’ appeals. However, the committee’s recommendations resulted in the rejection of their requests in a DoPT order issued on October 9, 2024. In their latest applications, the officers have expressed dissatisfaction with the DoPT’s decision, alleging that the ministry relied on what they claim to be an “illegal and illogical” report by the Khandekar Committee.
They also accused the DoPT of neglecting to consider their service records and the favourable recommendations from both the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments. Additionally, the officers pointed out that their cadre allocation was halted by CAT in 2016, a decision that was never reversed or stayed by the Telangana High Court despite the DoPT’s challenge.