Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday impressed upon the advocate-general to ensure that the order of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) allotting Telangana cadre to IPS officer Abhishek Mohanty is complied with. With the advocate-general B.S. Prasad seeking a ‘short adjournment’ to get instructions from chief secretary Somesh Kumar on whether or not he would implement the CAT order, the court adjourned the matter to March 15.
The court gave a relief to the CS by exempting him from appearing before the CAT on Friday following contempt proceedings issued by the tribunal. Hearing a petition filed by the CS seeking a stay on the CAT order, a division bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice A Venkateswar Reddy suggested that Mohanty could be absorbed into the state cadre and kept without posting till a case filed by the Union ministry of home affairs challenging the CAT order is disposed. “He (Mohanty) is a good officer. Why don’t you allow him in? He is without salary for seven months,” the bench pointed out.
The bench observed that it had to stay all CAT orders, including the one that allowed the chief secretary Somesh Kumar to continue in the Telangana cadre, if his present petition seeking stay on Mohanty’s order was granted. The bench also wondered whether the AG was representing the Telangana government or the chief secretary in his personal capacity.
“You are the highest law officer in the state. You can ask the state government to accommodate the officer,” it said. But the personal appearance was exempted without any commitment by the AG on Mohanty.
Mohanty in his reply brought to the court’s notice about the Telangana government describing the CAT order issued in favour of Somesh’s continuance in Telangana as “reasonable and cogent” and urged that he needs to be treated equally and without any discrimination and prejudice.
