Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar relieved, sent to Andhra Pradesh cadre

The Department of Personnel and Training has on Tuesday passed orders relieving Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar from the state's service with immediate effect and directed him to join the Andhra Pradesh government, latest by Thursday.

The central government's instruction came following the Telangana high court order earlier in the day quashing the Central Administrative Tribunal's 2016 judgment allowing Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, to function in Telangana.

The court also declined the request to keep the judgment in abeyance for three weeks to enable Kumar to avail of remedy.

Welcoming the orders, Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay alleged that Kumar was engaged by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his political gains and vested interests.

Kumar was appointed the chief secretary, the top bureaucratic position in a state, in December 2019, by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in a decision superseding the senior IAS officers at that time.

Following the 2014 Andhra Pradesh bifurcation, Kumar, along with several other All India Service officers, was allocated to residual Andhra Pradesh by the Pratyush Sinha Committee that administered the distribution of the AIS officers between the two Telugu states.

However, Kumar challenged the decision in the CAT which quashed his AP state allotment.

DoPT, the central watchdog monitoring the service conditions, postings, transfers, etc of AIS officers, later approached the Telangana high court challenging the CAT order.

“Upon a thorough consideration of all aspects of the matter, we have no hesitation in holding that CAT had grossly erred in interfering with the allocation of the first respondent to the State of Andhra Pradesh,” the high court bench comprising chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Surepalli Nanda said in its order Tuesday.

The bench further stated the CAT order, “clearly unsustainable in law and on facts, is hereby set aside and quashed.”

The DoPT sent its order communication to Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary, Kumar, for compliance and asking for a report forthwith.

Kumar appointment as CS for political gains

Bandi Sanjay stated KCR's decision to offer the crucial CS post to Kumar, when his case was pending before the courts, as immoral and undemocratic.

“KCR used Kumar for political gains. Several anti-people, anti-employee orders were issued through the officer. The CM also used him as a pawn for various misdeeds in the administration like postings for favourable officers,” Bandi said in a statement.