CAT Refuses to Stay Reallocation of IAS Officers

Hyderabad: In a setback to IAS officers who want to continue in the state of their choice, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Tuesday refused to stay or set aside the Centre’s directing them to join their respective cadres by October 16.

The Centre’s department of personnel and training (DoPT) had on October 9 rejected the representations of these officers and gave them a week to join their cadre allocated in 2014. With the deadline ending on Wednesday, the officers approached the Telangana High Court for an urgent hearing.

IAS officers Ronald Rose, Vani Prasad, Amrapali Kata and Karuna Vakati, who are working in Telangana, were asked to go to Andhra Pradesh. C. Hari Kiran, Lotheti Shiv Shankar and G. Srujana from AP were asked to join the Telangana cadre.

The officials were continuing in AP and Telangana with the help of orders from CAT for the last 10 years. However, last year, the High Court referred all their matters to the Centre. The DoPT on October 9 passed orders which are a reiteration of the 2014 allocation order. The IAS officials, however, preferred to approach the CAT challenging the Centre's decision.

Contrary to their 2014 allocation order, Ronald Rose, Vani Prasad, Amrapali Kata and Karuna Vakati want to stay back in Telangana, and Srujana wants to stay back in Andhra Pradesh.

Rose says that the faulty cut-off date followed by the Pratyush Sinha committee in respect of seniority among bureaucrats has spoiled his chances of getting allocated to Telangana.

According to Vani Prasad and Karuna Vakati, their names were wrongly shown in the AP domicile list though their entire lives are linked to Hyderabad and Telangana. “The Centre's decision is contrary to the direction of the High Court,” they said.

GHMC commissioner Amrapali Kata said that the Pratyush Sinha Committee has narrowed the scope of swapping for direct recruit IAS unreserved officers through its guidelines. Her representation was rejected in a mechanical manner without application of mind, she said in her plea.

The tribunal bench comprising judicial member Dr Latha Baswaraj Patne and Shalini Mishra, member (administration), admitted their pleas and directed the Centre to file their counters by November 5.

Though senior advocates G. Vidya Sagar, K.R.K.V. Prasad, V. Mallik, K. Lakshmi Narasimha, and others urged the CAT to stay the Centre's orders, it refused to do so.

“We will hear the matter and pronounce our judgement. Let them go and join the cadres allotted to them in the meantime,” the CAT said.

While hearing the grievances of some of the bureaucrats, the CAT at one stage said that there were lapses and favouritism shown at the time of cadre division 10 years ago and what we are seeing now is the net result of such actions. The bench, however, refused to grant any interim relief.