Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Ghouse Meera Mohiuddin on Wednesday suspended the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad, which had directed allocation of senior IAS officer D Ronald Rose to the State cadre. The Tribunal’s order, dated April 9 2025 (in OA No. 1614) had instructed the government to take the officer onto its rolls, despite the fact that he was originally allotted to Andhra Pradesh during the 2014 bifurcation of the erstwhile undivided State.

The CAT order was challenged by the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Government of India, by way of writ petition 29636/2025, contending that cadre allocation of all-India Service officers falls exclusively within the domain of DoPT and not the tribunal.

Appearing for the Union Government, Additional Solicitor-General B Narasimha Sharma cited the earlier HC judgment directing former Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar—who had continued in Telangana based on CAT orders—to report to AP as per his original allocation. He argued that the same principle applies to Ronald Rose. The court was also informed that Rose’s request to DoPT for a “swapping” arrangement was rejected since the officers he proposed for the swap were also posted in the AP cadre. After hearing submissions, the CJ bench suspended the CAT order; directed DoPT to place on record the report of the Pratyush Sinha Committee, which had examined cadre allocations post-bifurcation.

The case was adjourned for six weeks, with directions to both the DoPT and the government to file counters.