Allotment of AIS officers to state of their choice: Centre seeks suspension of CAT order

The High Court Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili on Wednesday heard a writ petition filed by the Secretary, Union Home Ministry and the Joint Secretary Police, New Delhi seeking suspension of the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad branch wherein the CAT had directed the State government to accommodate Abhishek Mohanty, IPS working in Andhra Pradesh to the Telangana State.

Abhishek Mohanty, who is working as Additional Superintendent of Police, Chittoor district has filed a contempt case before the CAT, Hyderabad which directed Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to appear before it on February 25 for not implementing its order. Govind Reddy, counsel appearing for the Andhra Pradesh government, informed the Chief Justice Bench that 13 All India Services Officers (IAS & IPS) were the beneficiaries of the CAT orders since 2017, under which they got to work in the State of their choice, including Telangana CS Somesh Kumar.

Though he was an AP cadre officer, he got shifted to Telangana and was now working as the Chief Secretary based on an interim order of the CAT. But coming to the issue of Abhishek Mohanty, the Telangana government has not taken a call in accommodating him in the Telangana State despite the orders of the CAT. And for the last six months, the IPS officer was without any posting and was not even paid salary.

Govind Reddy further informed that Somesh Kumar has implemented the CAT orders by accommodating other AIS officers into the Telangana State since 2017, except Abhishek Mohanty, which he said amounts to discrimination and humiliation of the IPS officer, who still has 31 years of service. He further added that such a discriminatory treatment to the IPS officer lowers his morale. After hearing the contentions of the counsel for AP government, the Chief Justice said, "Justice should be uniform to all the AIS officers as 13 AIS officers are being benefited by the CAT orders and got their choice State to work in." Meanwhile, Surya Karan Reddy, Additional Solicitor General, Union government, informed the Division Bench that similar writ petitions were listed before the Division Bench No.2 headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Wednesday and further informed that the Central government was the final authority in allotment of All India Service Officers to the States.

Chief Justice, after hearing the contentions of the Additional Solicitor General, directed the Registry, High Court to send the file of Abhishek Mohanty to Division Bench No 2 immediately for adjudication as 13 writ petitions filed by AIS officers seeking allotment to either of the States were listed before it. The Division Bench headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan & Justice A Venkateshwara Reddy, commenced the hearing of the writ petitions filed by the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel Public Grievance Pension, New Delhi seeking suspension of the CAT orders wherein the CAT had passed orders directing the Telangana and the AP States to relieve the AIS officers from their States to their choice States.

The DoPT sought suspension of the orders passed by the CAT in 2016 & 2017 wherein 13 AIS officers working in AP and Telangana were allotted to the State of their choice viz., Somesh Kumar, IAS, C Hari Kiran IAS, G Anantha Ramulu IAS, Mallella Prashanti, Karuna Vakati, IAS, A Vani Prasad, IAS, D Donald Rose, IAS, Srijana Gummalla, IAS, Sivashankar Loheti, IAS, Abhilasha Bisht, IPS, Anjani Kumar, IPS, Santosh Mehra, IPS, AV Ranganath, IPS, and Abhishek Mohanty, IPS.

Santosh Kumar, Special Government Pleader informed the Bench that Abhishek Mohanty had filed a contempt case before the CAT in which Somesh Kumar has to appear before it on February 25 and sought an early date for hearing the writ petitions.

Justice Ujjal Bhuyan made it ample clear that the contempt case was before the CAT and it could not touch it, rather it advised the Special GP to inform the CAT that the issue was under adjudication before the High Court and directed the State government to file its counter affidavits in all the writ petitions filed by the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel Public Grievance Pension, New Delhi for further adjudication.