HYDERABAD: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Wednesday sought to know from the Centre as to why IAS officer Satish Chandra was allowed to shift his cadre from Telangana to AP despite no similar grade officer was available there.
The tribunal bench comprising B Venkateswara Rao, member (judicial) and Ranjana Chowdary, member (administration), posed this question to assistant solicitor general B Narayana Reddy while hearing a petition filed by GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar, who has challenged his allotment to AP cadre.
Somesh challenged the guidelines prepared by the Pratyush Sinha Committee and told the bench that all the parameters set by this committee were either 'faulty' or were 'flouted' by the authorities at will while carrying out the distribution of IAS officers between AP and Telangana.
The bench referred to the anomalies pointed out by Somesh in the cadre allocation and sought the Centre's response. "On one hand, you say you will allow swapping only among the same batch or among those who have the same grade and pay, but you allow officers like Satish Chandra to go to a state of his choice even though his grade and that of the swapper did not match," the bench told the Centre's counsel.
The bench also wanted to know from the Centre as to how then chief secretary P K Mohanty was included in the advisory panel set up to carry out the division when his daughter and son-in-law were among the officers who figured in the allotment list. The insider and outsider ratio, the domicile status and other parameters too appear to have been tinkered with, the bench said referring to the allegations of Somesh.
The Centre's counsel said the entire exercise was done in accordance with the guidelines of the Pratyush Sinha Committee and also in accordance with the provisions of the AP Reorganization Act and the fundamental principles enunciated by the Constitution.
"There is a roster system to be followed and we did everything in a scientific manner. We could not accommodate some officers due to some complex procedures. Of the huge number of officers that were distributed among the two states, only 14 applicants questioned the procedure," Narayana Reddy said. The bench then directed him to file a written reply. The hearing will continue on Friday.
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