Four IAS officers from Telangana have gone to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to challenge a decision by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). The decision involves moving them from the Telangana cadre to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
The officers—Vakati Karuna, Vani Prasad, Amrapali, and Srujana—filed separate petitions on Monday. They are asking to cancel the DoPT’s order and allow them to continue working in Telangana.
Recently, the DoPT told the officers to report to Andhra Pradesh for duty. However, the officers are against this and want to stay in Telangana.
Their petitions will be heard by CAT on Tuesday. This issue started after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, which led to the reallocation of IAS and IPS officers between the two new states—Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The officers argue that they should remain in the Telangana cadre and have listed several reasons in their petitions. Earlier, CAT had supported their concerns, but the DoPT challenged this in the Telangana High Court. In March 2023, the High Court asked the Central Government to look into the officers’ requests again.
Following this, the Central Government formed a one-member commission, led by Deepak Khandekar, in March 2023 to review the matter. After examining the officers’ objections, the commission rejected their pleas. This led to the DoPT reaffirming their transfer to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
The DoPT has ordered the officers to report to Andhra Pradesh by October 16. However, the officers are now asking CAT to intervene and stop the transfer.
