Merger of government, PR teachers illegal: High Court

‘State cannot seek Presidential Order to unify two different cadres of services’

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday declared the Telangana government’s move to merge services of government and Panchayat Raj teachers as illegal.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice V. Ramasubramanian gave the verdict making it clear that the State government cannot seek Presidential Order to unify two different cadres of teacher services.

The bench observed that the order can also be applied to Andhra Pradesh government which too took a similar decision, though it was given in case of Telangana government. The judgment would have a bearing on services of nearly three lakh teachers in both the States.

The bench heard writ petitions filed by Telangana State Government Teachers Association and other teachers challenging unified service rules for both the cadres. The bench did not agree with the amendments made by the government to the Presidential Order to overcome certain administrative problems while unifying the two cadres. The bench agreed with the arguments of senior counsel S. Ramachandra Rao who contended that the government was attempting to enforce the changes with retrospective effect from 1998, while they were actually made in 2017.

UoH audit

The division bench on Tuesday directed Assistant Solicitor General K. Laxman to ascertain who had the powers to audit the income and expenditure of University of Hyderabad.

The direction was given after hearing a PIL petition filed by The Right Society, a voluntary organisation, over allegations that funds of the UoH were misappropriated during 2012 and 2015. The bench sought to know from the ASG if auditing was being done every year in the university.

The case was posted to September 10 for further hearing.