CS Somesh Kumar faults Pratyush Sinha Committee guidelines

Hyderabad: The Division Bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice S Nanda on Friday resumed the writ petition filed by Secretary, DOPT, Government of India, seeking a stay on the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench order, through which Somesh Kumar, IAS was allocated to the Telangana State. Surya Karan Reddy, Additional Solicitor General, representing the DOPT, informed the court that all the contentions of Somesh Kumar raised before the CAT were false.

Somesh Kumar has alleged before the CAT that the Pratyush Sinha Committee, which framed the guidelines for allocating All India Services Officers to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, was made to achieve personal benefits as the daughter of Pratyush Sinha, who is also an AIS officer, got the benefit of getting a choice of the State. CS faulted the entire Pratyush Sinha Committee guidelines, which were framed for equitable distribution of AIS officers among both the States. The Additional Solicitor General informed the court that Somesh Kumar did not get the benefit of swapping as there was no officer in the list to enable him to swap. Somesh Kumar challenged non-inclusion of PK Mohanty, IAS in the list due to which he lost the opportunity of swapping. As per rules, swapping was not permissible with a retired officer.

The Additional Solicitor General informed the court that All India Service Rules mandate that any candidate who is selected, should work in the State to which he is allotted and has no right to ask for allocation in the State of his choice. The Hon'ble Supreme court had time and again held that an All India Service officer should work where he is allotted.

The CAT Hyderabad Bench ought to have remanded back this issue of allocation to the DOPT for consideration, it could not have directly passed orders allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana State. The Division Bench directed the ASG to point out the error in the Tribunal Hyderabad Bench order allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana. The matter was adjourned to March 28.

Contempt case: Khammam Collector appears before HC

Hyderabad: Khammam District Collector Goutham appeared before the High Court Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili with regard to a contempt plea filed by Allika Anjaiah, General Secretary, VHP for Khammam district seeking a direction to punish officials, including the District Collector for wilful disobedience of court orders dated December 27, 2021. Contempt case was filed as the Chief Justice court orders were not implemented over removal of a statue from the public place.

The petitioner informed the court that while a cross of Jesus Christ was removed, but in its place, a statue of Mother Theresa was erected in the Mutyalamma circle, which is a public place, in contrary to the guidelines of the Supreme Court. The Bench has directed the District Collector, Khammam to remove the statue within 10 days.