DoPT relieves Telangana CS Somesh Kumar after HC order

Hyderabad, Jan 10:  The Union Department for Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Tuesday relieved Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar from the state government, hours after the Telangana High Court quashed the IAS officer's allotment to the state cadre.

The relieving orders will come into force with immediate effect. Somesh Kumar has been directed to join the Andhra Pradesh government latest by January 12.

The order was issued a few hours after the High Court set aside the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), allocating the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer to Telangana in 2016.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surepalli Nanda allowed the writ petition filed by the DoPT seeking suspension of CAT order.

CAT's Hyderabad bench had passed an order on March 29, 2016 allotting Somesh Kumar to Telangana.

Counsel for Somesh Kumar has made a request to the court to keep 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 bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh into two separate states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, the Union government had re-allotted IAS and IPS officers working in the undivided state to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and the newly- created Telangana state.

In this process, Somesh Kumar, an IAS officer of the 1989 batch, was allotted to Andhra Pradesh by the DoPT.

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

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

Meanwhile, Somesh Kumar called on Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. They believed to have discussed the High Court order.

Somesh Kumar is likely to file an appeal against the Telangana High Court order.