Hyderabad High Court tells Telangana government to take back power staff
Hyderabad: In a major setback to the Telangana state government and its power utilities, the High Court on Friday set aside the allocation orders issued by the TS Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL), allocating more than 1,200 employees working in TS Transco, TS Genco and TSNPDCL, to Andhra Pradesh, based on their nativity.
A division bench of Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice M.S.K. Jaiswal dismissed the appeal by the TS government and TSSPDCL and declared the staff allocation to AP unconstitutional.
HC: Nativity-based transfers void
The bench declared that the Rules framed by TSSPDCL for allocation and as adopted by other utilities, was illegal, null and void ab initio.
Referring to the judgement of the Supreme Court quashing an Act which was made in 1957 to provide special concessions to the people of Telangana in employment, the bench ruled that the very basis of discriminating of employees based upon their nativity and place of birth was illegal and unconstitutional and violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.
The bench directed that all the employees who were allocated to Andhra Pradesh based on the Rules should be allowed to work in TS power utilities with continuity of service, salaries, and all increments due to them.
The bench directed that the Telangana government shall reimburse to the AP government any salaries that may have been paid by it pursuant to the earlier interim directions of the High Court.
The bench directed the transmission and power generation companies of both states, and both state governments, to work out mo-dalities with the existing joint committee or to constitute fresh committee and finalise modalities without reference to the nativity of employees, within two months, and complete the entire allocation within four months from today.
The bench directed the TS government and its power utilities to ensure that there will not be any discrimination towards employees of AP till the process for division is completed.
The case of the petitioners was that in April 2015, TSSPDCL issued orders allocating more than 1,200 employees (engineers) in different cadres in power utilities of TS to AP. Aggrieved by this, they had moved the HC and a single judge had stayed the allocation and directed that the employees be allowed to continue in service and salaries be paid to them.
