Telangana HC Not to Bypass Sinha Panel on Allocation of AIS Officers

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday told the 13 all-India services (AIS) officers —10 from the IAS and three IPS — working in the Telugu states against their allocations by the Centre that it would not bypass the guidelines framed by the Pratyush Sinha advisory committee.

A division bench, comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice Anil Kumar, also made it clear that it would not reevaluate the guidelines, which had been upheld by the Chief Justice bench of the Telangana High Court in the Somesh Kumar case in January.

The bench provided an opportunity to the AIS officers to make fresh representation to the Union department of personnel and training (DoPT), being the cadre controlling authority, to consider the grievances of the officers afresh. The court gave this opportunity because most of the 13 officers would superannuate in one or two years and had been working for nearly 10 years in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh against their allocations.

B. Narasimha Sharma, additional solicitor general, representing the Centre, said that there was already a delay in dealing the said officers' cases, even after the High Court had upheld the guidelines for allocation in January in the Somesh Kumar case. He argued that similar orders shall be passed in all cases. However, counsels for the officers argued that their cases be heard individually.

The court adjourned the hearing to December 4.

Telangana DGP Anjani Kumar and senior IPS officer Abhilash Bisht are also facing the cases, as they were allotted to Andhra Pradesh but have been working in Telangana based on the orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which stayed the DoPT notification allotting them officers to Andhra Pradesh.

The Union government challenged the CAT orders before the Telangana High Court in 2017 and the cases have been pending ever since. It is likewise with regard to IAS officers G. Anantha Ramu, Ronald Rose, S.S. Rawat, Amrapali Katta, Srijana Gummalla, Harikiran, Sankar Lotheti, Prashanti, Karuna Vakati and Vani Prasad.

If the DoPT fails to consider representations of the officers, then they would have to submit their special cases to satisfy the court, which has stated it would not bypass the guidelines.