HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by seven All India Services (AIS) officers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh seeking a stay on the Union government order directing them to join their respective state cadre by October 16. The Department of Personnel and Training on October 9 had issued an order rejecting the officers’ representations and asked them to follow the original cadre allocation made during the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014.
For the past 10 years, the officers have been working in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh based on earlier orders from the CAT. However, last year, the high court referred their cases to the Union government, directing it to re-examine the bureaucrats’ pleas and issue orders under applicable norms. In response, the Centre issued its latest orders, reiterating the original 2014 cadre allocations.
The seven officers who had submitted pleas are Ronald Rose, A Vani Prasad, Amrapali Kata and Vakati Karuna, who are currently serving in the state but were allocated to Andhra Pradesh, and C Hari Kiran, Lotheti Shiv Shankar and G Srujana, who were assigned to Telangana but are working in the neighbouring state.
Meanwhile, Ronald Rose argued that a faulty cut-off date used by the Pratyush Sinha Committee affected his seniority, preventing his allocation to Telangana. Prasad and Karuna contended that their names were wrongly listed under AP domicile, despite their lifelong connections to Hyderabad and Telangana. Amrapali Kata raised concerns that the committee’s guidelines restricted the opportunity for unreserved direct-recruit IAS officers to be swapped between states. She further alleged that the rejection of her representation by the Centre was done without due consideration.
Centre told to file counter by Nov 5
The CAT bench, comprising judicial member Dr Latha Baswaraj Patne and administrative member Shalini Mishra, admitted the officers’ petitions and directed the Union government to submit its counters by November 5 and the one-man committee report by the next hearing date. It also asked the petitioners why they are not exercising the ‘swap’ option available to them for cadre reallocation.
Despite requests from senior advocates G Vidya Sagar, KRKV Prasad, V Mallik and K Lakshmi Narasimha to stay the Centre’s orders, the bench refused to grant interim relief. “We will hear the matter finally and pronounce our judgment. Let them go and join the cadres allotted to them in the meantime,” the bench said.
During the hearing, the bench acknowledged grievances over favouritism and lapses during the original cadre division in 2014, stating that the current issues are a result of those actions. However, they declined to provide immediate relief to the officers, who must now comply with the Centre’s directive to join their designated state cadres by the October 16 deadline.