Supreme Court issues notices to discoms over division of staff

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Tuesday served contempt notices on the power utilities in Telangana state, namely, TS Transco, TS Genco and TS Northern Power Distribution Company Limited, for failing to implement its orders on bifurcation of power employees between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The Supreme Court in December 2020 had issued orders to implement the recommendations of one-man committee headed by retired Justice DM Dharmadhikari on bifurcation of employees. The SC made it clear that Dharmadhikari committee report is final on bifurcation of employees and both the States have to implement it strictly.

The committee asked both the States to take 50 per cent each of total 1,157 employees. The AP government took 655 employees into service as per the committee orders. The TS government took all the employees except 84 on nativity grounds.

With this, these 84 employees filed a contempt case against TS power utilities in the Supreme Court. The court which heard the petition on Tuesday served contempt notices on the TS power utilities.

The SC had appointed the Justice Dharmadhikari Committee on November 28, 2018, to find a solution to the bifurcation of employees issue between the states since 2014.

The controversy over bifurcation of employees started after the TS power utilities had relieved 1,157 employees, who are natives of AP, on June 11, 2015. Some employees approached the High Court against the action of the TS power utilities, which have been paying salaries of about 15 crore a month to them without giving work.

Later, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Dharmadhikari to finalise the allocation. The committee had initially allotted 655 employees to AP and 584 to Telangana state in December 2019. Later, another 71 staff were added in the supplementary list, completing allocation in June, 2020.