The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has rejected the petitions of four Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers serving in Telangana, challenging the orders of the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to join the Andhra Pradesh government.
Ronald Rose, Vani Prasad, Amrapali Kata, and Karuna Vakati received no relief from CAT’s Hyderabad branch, which asked them to join the duties in Andhra Pradesh as directed by the DoPT.
Similarly, the CAT also rejected the petition of IAS officer G. Srijana, who sought permission to continue serving in Andhra Pradesh.
The DoPT on October 10 issued orders, relieving the five IAS officials from their current postings and directing them to join their respective state cadres on Monday (October 16).
The CAT asked the officers to join the duties as directed by DoPT till further orders.
The petitioners argued that the DoPT has not taken into consideration the recommendations of a one-man committee. The officers also argued that the approach of the Pratyush Sinha Committee, which was responsible for the bifurcation of cadres between the two Telugu states, was flawed.
The CAT asked DoPT to submit a detailed report by the first week of November, addressing the grievances raised by the officers.
The IAS officers are likely to approach the High Court on Monday.
The DoPT had last week rejected the claim of eight All India Service (AIS) officers to allocate Telangana cadre to them. The request of five IAS and three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers was rejected. These officers were allocated to the Andhra Pradesh cadre following the bifurcation of the state in 2014 but they had challenged the same and had requested that they be allocated the Telangana cadre.
The decision was taken by the Ministry following the recommendation by a single-member committee comprising former DoPT Secretary Deepak Khandekar, which was constituted to reconsider the final allocation of AIS officers.
The DoPT had directed IAS officers Karuna (2004 batch), Rose (2006), Prasad (1995), Kata (2010), M. Prashanti (2009) and IPS officers Anjani Kumar (1990), Abhilasha Bisht (1994), and Abhishek Mohanty (2011) to join the Andhra Pradesh government by October 16.
The DoPT has also ordered AIS officers of the Telangana cadre serving in Andhra Pradesh to join the Telangana government. They are IAS officers S.S. Rawat, Anantha Ramu, Srijana Gummala, and Siva Sankar Lotheti.
Following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh into two separate states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, the Union government had re-allotted IAS and IPS officers working in the undivided state to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and the newly created Telangana.
Some of the officers had challenged their reallocation and approached the CAT, which had ruled in their favour. The DoPT had challenged the CAT orders in the High Court. The Telangana High Court in its order of January 3, 2024, had ruled that the cases of the AIS officers should be reconsidered for final allocation in accordance with the guidelines framed on the basis of the recommendations of Pratyush Sinha committee between the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Acting on the High Court order, the DoPT had constituted the Khandekar committee in March 2024 for reconsideration of the final allocation.