On the night of September 15, the union government consigned the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (APAT) to history and declared that the body would no longer have jurisdiction over the new born state of Telangana.
Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation, which took place on June 1, 2014, resulted in the division of the then state of AP into two separate states—AP and Telangana. However, the process of separation, which involves of division of assets and liabilities and institutions of the erstwhile combined state, among others, is a work in progress and could carry on for some more years.
On Thursday night, the Ministry of Personnel through a gazette notification announced that the APTA will have no role in the affairs of the state of Telangana with immediate effect. Very soon, Telangana would have its own Tribunal.
The APTA was established in 1985 under the provisions of the Central Administrative Tribunal Act in pursuance of the amendment to 323A of the Constitution.
It adjudicated on disputes related to to recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the state of Andhra Pradesh and/or other local authorities under the control of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) led by the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been restive over the question of a separate Administrative Tribunal for the new state. In April 2015 a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court (both the states are waiting for establishment of separate High Courts) comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar declined to grant an order for establishing Telangana Administrative Tribunal on the ground that till the Centre officially denotifies the APAT’s jurisdiction, the present tribunal will continue as a common tribunal for redressing the service grievances of the employees of both the states
The latest central notification said that the Narendra Modi government had received a representation from the Telangana Government for discontinuation of APTA and the Centre has agreed to it.