The High Court of the State of Telangana heard a writ petition on Wednesday seeking suspension of the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) wherein it had directed the State government to accommodate Additional Superintendent of Police, Chittoor district, Abhishek Mohanty.
Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has been directed to appear on February 25 by a contempt case filed by Abhishek Mohanty, IPS.
Abishek Mohanty is an AP cadre officer who was shifted to Telangana and was working as the Chief Secretary based on an interim order of the CAT. But for the last six months the Telangana government has not taken any call on it nor has Mohanty been paid his salary.
Govind Reddy, counsel appearing for the Andhra Pradesh government, informed the bench that Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar discriminated against, humiliated, and lowered Mohanty’s morale. The IPS officer still has 31 years of service left to serve.
After the hearing, 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, Additional Solicitor General, Union government, Surya Karan Reddy, informed that similar writ petitions were listed on Wednesday and further said that the Centre gives the final go in allotment of All India Service (AIS) 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 ASI officers seeking allotment to either of the states, were listed before it.
The Division Bench headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice A Venkateshwara Reddy commenced the hearing of the writ petitions seeking suspension of the CAT orders wherein it had directed Telangana and AP states to relieve the AIS officers from their states to their choice states.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) sought suspension of the orders passed by the CAT in 2016 and 2017 wherein 13 AIS officers working in AP and Telangana were allotted to the state of their choice including Somesh Kumar, ASI, and Anjani Kumar, IPS.
