4 IAS officers challenge AP cadre allocation in CAT

Vani Prasad, Amrapali Katta, Vakati Karuna, Vani Prasad, Ronald Ross, Prashanti and IPS officers Anjani Kumar, Abhilesh Bisht and Abhishek Mohanti were asked to report to AP by the DoPT. Similarly, Srijana, Shivshankar and Harikiran, working in the neighbouring state were asked to come back to the TG cadre

Hyderabad: Four IAS officers belonging to the AP Cadre and have been working in Telangana since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh have approached the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking cancellation of the orders of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) asking them to report to AP by October 16.

Vani Prasad, Amrapali Katta, Vakati Karuna, Vani Prasad, Ronald Ross, Prashanti and IPS officers Anjani Kumar, Abhilesh Bisht and Abhishek Mohanti were asked to report to AP by the DoPT. Similarly, Srijana, Shivshankar and Harikiran, working in the neighbouring state were asked to come back to the TG cadre. NTR District Collector Srijana filed a separate petition before the CAT urging that she be allowed to continue in AP. The CAT is expected to hear the petitions on Tuesday.

Earlier, the DoPT rejected the requests of a couple of AIS and IPS officials working in Telangana and directed them to report to the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The DoPT cited the existing rules and precedents for rejecting their request. The officers who knocked on the doors of the CAT have reportedly cited several reasons seeking that they should be placed under the Telangana cadre.

The tribunal had earlier taken cognizance of the concerns raised by the officials. However, the DoPT challenged the CAT decision before the Telangana State High Court. Subsequently, the DoPT was directed to consider reviewing the concerns raised about the requests made by the officers.

Consequently, the Centre appointed a one-man commission headed by Deepak Khandekar. The commission went into the issues raised by the aggrieved officers. However, on taking cognizance of the objections and reasons of the officials concerned, the commission rejected their pleas.

Earlier, in a similar case, Somesh Kumar was asked by the DoPT to report to the Andhra Pradesh government. However, the official successfully evaded the directions of the DoPT and reported to the Andhra Pradesh government ahead of less than a year of his retirement. The official had exhausted all the legal remedies and reported to the AP government to only take voluntary retirement.