CAT refuses to stay Reassignment of IAS officers

Hyderabad: In a setback for IAS officers who want to continue in their chosen status, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Tuesday refused to stay or set aside the Centre’s order to induct- to their respective tables before October 16.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at the Center had on October 9 rejected the representations of these officers and granted them a week to join their allotted cadre in 2014. With the deadline ending on Wednesday, the officers approached the Telangana High Court seeking an urgent. audition

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.

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

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

Rose says the flawed cut-off date followed by Pratyush Sinha’s committee regarding seniority among bureaucrats has damaged his chances of being assigned to Telangana.

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

GHMC Commissioner Amrapali Kata said the Pratyush Sinha Committee has reduced the scope of exchange for direct recruitment unreserved IAS officers through its guidelines. His representation was rejected mechanically without application of mind, he said in his plea.

The bench, comprising judicial member Dr Latha Baswaraj Patne and member (administration) Shalini Mishra, allowed their pleas and directed the Center to submit its counters by November 5.

Although senior advocates G. Vidya Sagar, KRKV Prasad, V. Mallik, K. Lakshmi Narasimha and others urged the CAT to uphold the Centre’s orders, it refused to do so.

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

While listening to the complaints of some bureaucrats, the CAT at one point said that there were wrongdoings and favoritism shown at the time of cadre division 10 years ago and what we are seeing now is the net result of these actions. The bench, however, refused to grant any interim relief.