Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday suspended G.O. Rt. No. 402 pertaining to mutual transfer of government teachers within erstwhile districts on the grounds that the G.O. violates the new presidential order brought in after the formation of new districts. The court had earlier granted status quo on implementation of the G.O. till Monday.
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy passed the interim order while hearing a batch of three cases filed by secondary grade teachers from Jayashankar Bhupalpally district challenging G.O. Rt. 402.
Counsels for the petitioners N.S. Arjun Kumar and M. Ramgopal Rao argued that though the new presidential order permitted transfer of persons from one local cadre to another local cadre on a reciprocal basis (mutual transfer), it was subject to a restriction that the persons so transferred shall forego their seniority and shall be assigned the lowest rank in the new local cadre. This condition was removed by the G.O. The counsels submitted that the state government did not have the powers to amend the presidential order by way of executive instructions in the form of G.O.s. If the condition of foregoing seniority has to be removed, it could only be done by the president by way of amendment. They contended that the state government’s action violates Article 371-D of the Constitution.
Justice Reddy agreeing with the counsels for the petitioners passed an interim order suspending G.O. Rt. 402 and directed the GAD to file counter-affidavits by June.
