Telangana High Court Sets Aside CAT Order On Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar

On March 29, 2016, the CAT's Hyderabad bench issued an order allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana.

Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar

Source : ABP Desam

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday set aside the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), allocating the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Somesh Kumar to Telangana in 2016. The court quashed his allotment to Telangana cadre.

Telangana HC sets aside CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) order staying Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar's allotment to Andhra Pradesh

"...CAT had grossly erred in interfering with the allocation of the first respondent to Andhra Pradesh..," HC order reads

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A Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda allowed the writ petition filed by the Department for Personnel Training (DoPT) seeking suspension of the CAT order.

On March 29, 2016, the CAT's Hyderabad bench issued an order allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana.

The counsel for Somesh Kumar has made a request to the court to keep the order in abeyance so that an appeal can be filed.

The High Court had reserved its order in July, and it was pronounced on Tuesday.

Following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh into two separate states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, the Union government reassigned IAS and IPS officers working in the undivided state to the residual state of Andhra Pradesh and the newly created Telangana state. In this process, Somesh Kumar was allotted to Andhra Pradesh.

However, Somesh Kumar had moved the CAT and secured an order staying his allotment to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. Since then, he has continued in Telangana and became Chief Secretary in 2019.

Somesh Kumar was one of the 16 bureaucrats who secured orders from CAT and continues to serve in Telangana.

DoPT had filed an appeal in the High Court challenging the stay order of the CAT, Hyderabad branch.

(With IANS inputs)