CAT has rightly allocated Somesh Kumar & other AIS officers to Telangana

Hyderabad: The division bench of the Telangana High Court, headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice S. Nanda, on Thursday, adjudicated a batch of writ petitions filed by the Department of Personnel and Training, seeking suspension of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad branch orders, which had allocated the IAS officers to Telangana as they had filed individual OA's before the CAT, aggrieved by their allocating to Andhra Pradesh.

Advocate-General Banda Shivananda Prasad informed the bench that the CAT Hyderabad branch has rightly allocated Somesh Kumar, Anjani Kumar, Abhilasha Bisht, C Hari Kiran, Abhishek Mohanty, and others to Telangana, who were all originally allocated to AP.

He told the court that all the All India Services officers in the batch of writ petitions, who are now serving Telangana, are rightly eligible to be allocated to the State as their allocation to AP was in utter violation of the AP Reorganisation Act, in violation of the AIS service rules. "Their services are much needed by Telangana, keeping in view their vast experience in running and aiding the administration of the State, the AG averred.

Finding fault with the contention of the Union of India in allocating the AIS officers to AP, he said, the Centre cannot have any grievance with the orders of the CAT because it cannot say that it is its domain. Section 76 of the Act clearly mandates that the UOI should make the allocation adhering to various sections promulgated in the Act, which is not done in this issue; Section 80 of the Act clearly says that there should be equitable allocation.

"It is a fact that upon the request of the department, the CAT restrained itself from suspending/set aside the entire guidelines framed for allocating the AIS officers between the two States, as the GOI pleaded before the CAT that if such an order is passed, it will disturb the entire list of officers who have been allocated.

Somesh Kumar, IAS, who is an outsider and belongs to unreserved category 1989 batch, was not given the option of swapping with an officer of the same batch as such a provision was not created in the guidelines whereas the officers belonging to the SC, ST and OBC had the facility of swapping within the roster as laid down in Section 81 of the Act. The guidelines failed to provide equitable justification in this issue, AG informed the court. "The non-inclusion of Dr. P K Mohanty IAS, the then Chief Secretary of the United AP Government in the list intentionally by the UoI has lead to the non-allocation of Somesh Kumar to Telangana.

The CAT, before passing the order directing the Telangana government to accommodate the AIS officers before it to the State has taken into consideration the AIS service rules, the Act and the guidelines framed by the UC Agarwal Committee. The batch of writ petitions were adjourned to June 20 for submissions of the UoI.

PIL seeking direction to CBI to probe Jubilee Hills minor's rape case

On Thursday T Uma Mahendra, a social worker and resident of Petlaburz, filed a PIL seeking a direction to the CBI to investigate the recent Jubilee Hills rape of a minor girl in a moving car, as the accused belong to influential families and have strong political clout due to which the State police are not able to investigate the case in the right manner.

The petitioner informed the court that in the last couple of months, there have been many instances wherein women and minor girls were subjected to physical assault and sexual abuse, which were reported widely in newspapers, depicting total failure of the State machinery and the police in protecting women and girls from becoming prey to sexual assault and abuse by the perpetrators. All the accused in the rape case are from influential families and the police, succumbing to pressure brought by politicians are making all efforts to destroy crucial evidence, which can nail the accused. The petitioner contended that there are serious allegations against the State police, who are trying to shield the accused. There are chances of destroying crucial evidence.

"The police literally surrendered to politicians, dancing to their tunes and have become silent spectators in the case as is seen from media reports. The Jubilee Hills police are seen supplying biryani packets to the accused." The petitioner seeks a probe into this rape case by CBI. The Chief Secretary, DGP, CP Hyderabad, SHO Jubilee Hills, Union Home Secretary and CBI are respondents in the PIL. The PIL will come up for hearing before the Chief Justice bench within a day or two.