Repatriation of Anjani Kumar, Abhishek Mohanty, others: TS HC asks 13 IAS, IPS officers to make representation to DOPT

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court disposed of 13 writ petitions filed by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India seeking suspension of the orders issued by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad branch allocating 13 AIS (IAS & IPS) officers to the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

On Wednesday, a division bench of Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice N. Rajeshwar Rao directed all the 13 AIS officers, whose allocation to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was challenged by the DOPT, to make detailed representations ventilating their grievances to the DOPT, Government of India.

The DOPT will examine each case in terms of the observations made by the Tribunal and also pass appropriate orders on each representation by the guidelines framed by the Pratyush Sinha Committee.

On March 29, 2016, Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad passed orders allocating Anjani Kumar, IPS, presently working as DG Road Safety Authority, Abhilasha Bhisht IPS, Director, RBVRR Telangana Police Academy, Abhishek Mohanty IPS, CP Cyberabad, D. Donald Rose IAS, Commissioner GHMC, Amrapali Katta IAS, Special Secretary in CM office, and 7 other IAS officers to the Telangana State / AP. Their allocation was challenged by the DOPT, Government of India.

The court in its orders said: “This Court having considered the rival submissions and after perusal of the record discloses that all the cases where there was a challenge to the approved guidelines (Pratyush Sinha Committee guidelines) for allocation of AIS officers were adjudicated only on the ground that the Central Administrative Tribunal held the guidelines as BAD in law and Invalid in OA.No. 1241/2014 and has granted relief to the AIS officers (IAS & IPS) allocating them to the State of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.”

The approved guidelines were held to be valid in the writ petition of 2017 filed by the Department of Personnel and Training, Union of India challenging the allocation of Somesh Kumar to Telangana. He was originally allocated to AP after the bifurcation of the state.

In this writ petition, the division bench comprising then Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda had held that the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad had grossly erred in interfering with the allocation of Somesh Kumar IAS (then Chief Secretary, TS) to the State of Andhra Pradesh and set aside the CAT, Hyderabad.

The High Court in its order said that the cases of the AIS officers deserve to be reconsidered for final allocation strictly by the approved guidelines for allocation of IAS & IPS officers to TS and AP.

The Court found fault with the CAT, Hyderabad in allocating the AIS officers to the respective states by saying that it was not justified in allocating the AIS officers to the states to which the officers opted before the Tribunal. It observed that the CAT, Hyderabad ought to have remanded the matter back to the DOPT, Government of India to re-examine each case in terms of the observations made by the Tribunal and also pass appropriate orders.

Disposing of the writ petitions, the court directed all the AIS (IAS & IPS) officers to submit a detailed representation ventilating their grievances and also their reallocation to respective states strictly as per the guidelines the AIS officers are entitled to. The court asked them to raise legal issues in their representation and the DOPT shall consider their representations and pass appropriate orders strictly following the law and other issues.

The court said the DOPT shall also take into account the fact that most of the AIS officers have completed 10 years of service and the fact that they continued for a very long time in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The DOPT shall also examine the case of the AIS officers about individual grievances and pass orders. It is needless to say the DOPT shall consider the representation of the AIS officers and shall give them an opportunity through a personal hearing and pass orders.