CAT refuses interim stay on IAS officers’ allocation to AP cadre

Hyderabad: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which heard the individual petitions of five IAS officers challenging their cadre reallocation on Tuesday refused to grant an interim stay on the Centre’s recent orders.

The five IAS officers petitioned to have the October 9 DoPT orders prohibiting them from reporting to their original cadres by October 16 revoked.

The officers include Telangana’s energy secretary Ronald Rose, principal secretary (Tourism) Vani Prasad, GHMC commissioner Amrapali Kata, women and child welfare secretary Karuna Vakati and Andhra Pradesh’s NTR district collector G Srijana.

Following the recommendations of the Pratyush Sinha Committee, these officers had opposed transfers and wished to remain in their current positions under the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh State cadres.

In response to the officers’ complaints, the CAT has instructed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to provide a thorough report by the first week of November. Apart from that, the CAT has instructed the officers to report to their respective State cadres on Wednesday as directed earlier, and they have been told to go on with their regular responsibilities till further notice.

CAT’s response

Hearing the petition, the CAT also made crucial comments. “People in Andhra Pradesh are facing a tough time due to floods. Don’t you have any responsibility to serve them? The DoPT has all rights to allocate the cadres to the IAS officers. Despite the nativity, is there a possibility of swapping in the guidelines?” the CAT questioned.

The counsel who appeared on behalf of the IAS officers informed the CAT that the one-person committee is not paying attention to the recommendations of DoPT. Based on the recommendations of the one-person Committee, it did not give its report before issuing the order by the Centre.

What is the case about?

The DoPT dismissed the officers’ appeals on October 9 and reiterated the 2014 cadre distribution order, which mandates that the officers report back to their respective state cadres by the specified date.

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, the cadre separation of IAS officers is the source of the conflict. Following their original approval by CAT to stay in their current positions, the officers have been serving in their respective states for about 10 years.

In 2023, however, the Telangana High Court remitted their cases to the Central government, giving it instructions to examine the officers’ arguments and render judgments consistent with the rules in place. Regarding the Pratyush Sinha Committee's allocation procedure, the IAS officials also have voiced a number of complaints.

In his plea, Ronald Rose claimed that his chances of being assigned to Telangana were adversely affected by the committee’s seniority cut-off date. Karuna Vakati and Vani Prasad, meanwhile, asserted that their presence on the Andhra Pradesh domicile list was incorrect because they have lived in Hyderabad and Telangana their entire lives.

Asserting that the Centre’s decision to deny her plea lacked adequate review, Amrapali Kata expressed concerns about the restrictive rules for direct recruiting IAS officials under the unreserved category.