Telangana HC adjourns Telangana Vs Centre case on allocation of AIS officers from AP to TS

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court Division Bench comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice J Sreenivas Rao on Monday adjourned the order on a batch of writ petitions that sought suspension of the orders by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Hyderabad allocating 15 All India Service (AIS) officers to Telangana State, who were originally allocated to the Andhra Pradesh.

The petitions were filed by the secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Public Grievance Pension, North Block in New Delhi.

Although the batch of writ petitions did not appear for a hearing, J Ramchander Rao, additional advocate general, Telangana, informed the court that the contention of Telangana State should be heard by the court, and requested a month’s time for arguing the case.

The request was vehemently opposed by Gade Praveen Kumar, deputy solicitor general representing the Central government, saying that the Centre wants the batch of writ petitions to be adjudicated early and sought an adjournment of the hearing to July 4.

Praveen Kumar informed the court that when the CAT passed the orders on March 29, 2016, allocating Anjani Kumar IPS, Abhilasha Bhisht IPS, Santosh Mehra IPS, AV Ranganath IPS, Abhishek Mohanty IPS, C Hari Kiran, IAS, D Donald Ross IAS and others to the Telangana State, the state did not put forth any arguments before the CAT.

He said that the state had made it clear that the allocation of the AIS officers to both states is up to the Central Government. Hence, he countered the state’s position to take up the issue with the allocations now. Praveen Kumar added that Telangana State has no grounds for a case, going by its previous contention before the CAT, Hyderabad Branch.

After hearing Praveen Kumar’s argument, Ramchander Rao said that, except for the Centre, neither Telangana nor Andhra Pradesh has any problem with the AIS officers working in Telangana. “Both states have no issues with the CAT order,” he said.

The Division Bench after hearing both arguments adjourned the batch of writ petitions to July 18.