The Telangana High Court has set aside the Centre’s decision to place senior IAS officer A Vani Prasad in the Andhra Pradesh cadre and directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to allot her to the Telangana cadre within two months. A division bench of Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice V. Ramakrishna Reddy delivered the order on Tuesday, faulting the methodology followed during the 2014 bifurcation exercise.
The court held that the Presidential Order issued under Article 371-D, which governs local status, prevails over other criteria used in cadre allocation. In Vani Prasad’s case, the Pratyush Sinha Committee had relied primarily on place of birth (Guntur) to infer domicile, even though her schooling through graduation was in Hyderabad—grounds on which she sought Telangana cadre.
The ruling reverses the earlier position where her plea for Telangana cadre was rejected by the CAT, Hyderabad, and DoPT’s allocation to AP was upheld. The High Court’s latest directive now obliges the Centre to reassign her to Telangana.
Vani Prasad is presently Special Chief Secretary in Andhra Pradesh (Labour Department). The High Court also asked the Centre and both state governments to issue necessary consequential orders within the stipulated time.
Also Read: CAT turns down IAS officer Vani Prasad’s plea for allocation to Telangana
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