Four IAS officers who challenged the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) order in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad branch, have not received any relief. The CAT rejected their petitions and asked them to follow DoPT’s directions until further orders. It also directed DoPT to submit a detailed report by the first week of November, addressing the grievances raised by the officers.
After rejection of their petitions, the officers; Ronald Rose (IAS:2006), Vani Prasad (IAS:1995), Amrapali Kata (IAS:2010), and Karuna Vakati (IAS:2004) currently serving in Telangana, will have to report for duty in Andhra Pradesh. Likewise, IAS officer G Srijana (IAS:2013), who sought permission to continue serving in Andhra Pradesh, will have to join Telangana
Last week, DoPT rejected the request of eight All India Service (AIS) officers, including five IAS and three IPS officers, to allocate them Telangana cadre. These officers were assigned to the Andhra Pradesh cadre following the bifurcation of the state in 2014 but had contested the allocation, requesting the Telangana cadre instead.
The decision to uphold the original allocation followed a recommendation by a single-member committee led by former DoPT Secretary Deepak Khandekar, which was formed to review the final allocation of AIS officers.
DoPT had directed IAS officers Karuna Vakati, Ronald Rose, Vani Prasad, Amrapali Kata, M Prashanthi (IAS:2009), and IPS officers Anjani Kumar (IPS:1990), Abhilasha Bisht (IPS:1994), and Abhishek Mohanty (IPS:2011) to join the Andhra Pradesh government by October 16. Additionally, AIS officers serving in Andhra Pradesh but assigned to the Telangana cadre—such as IAS officers SS Rawat (IAS:1992), Anantha Ramu (IAS:1990), G Srijana (IAS:2009), and Siva Sankar Lotheti (IAS:2013)—are ordered to return to Telangana.
The reallocation of officers between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana followed the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Some officers had challenged their reallocation and approached CAT, which ruled in their favor. DoPT then contested the CAT orders in the High Court. In its ruling on January 3, 2024, the Telangana High Court directed that the cases of AIS officers be reconsidered for final allocation based on the guidelines formed by the Pratyush Sinha committee.
Following the court’s directive, DoPT set up the Khandekar committee in March 2024 to reassess the final allocations.
