Telangana and Andhra Pradesh asked to explain DGP appointments

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal on Monday granted three weeks time to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments to file counter affidavits and explain the method adopted to appoint J. V. Ramudu and Anurag Sharma as DGPs to their respective states.

A two-member bench comprising B.V. Rao (Judicial) and Minnie Mathew (administration) were dealing with the petitions by senior IPS officers S.A. Huda and T.P. Das challenging the appointments of J.V. Ramudu and Anurag Sharma, contending that the appointments were made in violation to the All India Service Officers rule and the directions of the Apex Court in Prakash Singh’s case.

Referring to the appointment of Mr Ramudu as a regular DGP to the state of AP, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the state government has no power to appoint an officer based on a temporary allotment order. Reacting to the submissions, the bench asked the counsel of AP how the governments can make regular appointments without it being a final allocation of cadre.

The counsel replied that the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh’s case was followed. He said that the government forwarded the list of eligible officers for the post of the DGP to the Union Public Service Commission and the UPSC has empanelled the names after short listing the officers.

Mr Ramudu is one of the officers in the list of the UPSC and the government made him head of the police force of the state. He contended that no prejudice was caused to the petitioners with the appointment of Mr Ramudu and they will not gain anything even if the decision of the state is stayed. He submitted that the final allocation of cadres is already completed and T.P. Das has been allocated to Telangana state and Mr Huda to AP.

The bench told the counsels representing Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to file their counter affidavits.