The Union government has filed a writ petition in Telangana High Court seeking to quash an order passed by Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad, allotting IPS officer Abhishek Mohanty of Andhra Pradesh cadre to Telangana cadre.
The Centre requested the HC to suspend the CAT order issued on July 19, 2021 till adjudication of the writ petition. Mr. Mohanty moved the CAT challenging his allotment to AP cadre following distribution of All India Service officers between AP and Telangana as per AP Reorganisation Act-2014.
Mr. Mohanty belonging to unreserved category outsider officer had opted for Telangana cadre. Out of the 62 unreserved category outsider officers, 27 officers were to be allocated to newly created Telangana State. He was allotted to AP cadre as per the guidelines framed by Pratyush Sinha committee, the Union government said in its petition.
Mr. Mohanty applied for swapping from AP to Telangana but the request could not materialise as no officer was available for swapping. The Central government cited several grounds seeking to quash the CAT order. The Tribunal failed to note that the proposition of Cadre Allocation Policy was different from guidelines framed for distribution of AIS officers of erstwhile united AP State, the petition said.
Mr. Mohanty contended that he was denied Telangana cadre despite being at position no 56 while another IPS officer Sunpreet Singh at position no 57 was allotted Telangana cadre. The Union government maintained that Mr. Mohanty was at 47 among the 49 officers who opted for Telangana cadre.
Even if merit-cum-preference option was taken as a parameter for distribution of IPS officers between AP and Telangana, Mr. Mohanty did not stand distant chance of being allotted to Telangana as only top 27 officers would have been allocated to Telangana cadre, the government said in the petition.
