Telangana High Court on January 10 quashed the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)-Hyderabad order allocating senior IAS officer and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to Telangana.
A bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda, which pronounced the order, allowed the writ petition filed by the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) challenging the CAT order. Following creation of Telangana State as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act-2014, the DoPT re-allotted the All India Services officers between the residuary AP State and newly carved out Telangana State.
During the re-allocation, Mr. Somesh Kumar was allocated to AP by the DoPT. The senior IAS officer, who eventually became Telangana Chief Secretary, moved the CAT-Hyderabad challenging his allocation to AP. The CAT had passed a direction allocating Mr. Somesh Kumar to Telangana on March 29, 2016.
Challenging this direction of the CAT, the DoPT filed a writ petition in Telangana HC. Along with the allocation of Mr. Somesh Kumar to Telangana, the DoPT had also questioned the allotment of 12 other All India service officers to Telangana.
Somesh Kumar’s counsel requested the bench to keep the verdict in abeyance for three weeks so that the IAS officer can avail his remedy. The bench, however, turned down the request.
“Having considered the matter in detail and pronounced the judgement, we are not inclined to stay the same,” the bench said.
On Tuesday the division bench headed by CJ Ujjal Bhuyan pronounced judgement quashing the CAT order.
Published - January 10, 2023 12:29 pm IST
