The Telangana High Court on Friday decided that a Bench dealing with service matters would hear the pleas pertaining to 11 All India Service officers, whose allotment to Telangana by the Central Administrative Tribunal-Hyderabad was challenged by the Union government.
A Bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji, before which the matters came up for hearing, said the pleas required to be heard separately, posting them to January 27 for next hearing. The Bench directed the High Court Registry to allot the pleas for hearing to the Bench concerned accordingly.
As the hearing started, Deputy Solicitor-General of India Gadi Praveen Kumar submitted before the Bench that all the pleas were covered matters and a Bench headed by the Chief Justice had already given a clear verdict in the case of senior IAS officer and former Chief Secretary of Telangana Somesh Kumar. The Bench, in the verdict pertaining to Mr. Somesh Kumar, held that CAT had no jurisdiction in allocation of AIS officers to different States.
However, the Bench said the pleas pertaining to the 11 officers would be heard by separately. Mr. Praveen Kumar informed that if the matters were to be heard on merits, Additional Solicitor Genera of India-Chennai R. Shankaranarayanan would appear for the Central government to present the arguments.
The hearing of the pleas of the 11 officers, including that of senior IPS officer Anjani Kumar, serving presently as Telangana DGP in-charge (Head of Police Force), on Friday assumed importance in the backdrop of the High Court’s recent verdict quashing the CAT’s order and sending senior IAS officer Somesh Kumar (the then Chief Secretary) to Andhra Pradesh. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had re-allocated 15 AIS officers to residuary Andhra Pradesh State following creation of Telangana in 2014.
They moved the CAT-Hyderabad and secured directions getting them allotted to Telangana. Challenging this CAT order, the DoPT moved Telangana High Court. Two officers, Santosh Mehra, IPS, and A.V. Ranganath, IPS, withdrew their petitions, while the High Court recently quashed CAT order allocating Mr. Somesh Kumar to Telangana and directed him to be transferred to Andhra Pradesh.
As per the Bench’s direction on Friday, the matters relating to the remaining 11 officers would be heard separately from January 27.
